Must Reads For The Week 11/12/16

Posted November 12, 2016 by austrianaddict
Categories: Must Reads For The Week
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ELECTION COMMENTS

People didn’t vote for Trump, they voted against the status quo elites in Washington. Hillary was the perfect embodiment of the status quo elite ruling class. Here are a few reasons people voted against the elite. 1) In the words of the Reverend Wright, the Obamacare chickens came home to roost at the wrong time as healthcare premiums went through the roof. 2) Our ruling aristocracy could break the law and suffer no consequences, while we get dinged $90 for not wearing a seat belt. 3) People didn’t like the regulations passed by politicians and bureaucrats, that encroached into every aspect of their lives. 4) The condescending attitude toward the middle class by biased media elites finally pissed enough people off.

People were motivated to go out and vote against the status quo, and deal with Trump later. They were willing to take a chance on rolling a hard eight, because the knew they were going to crap if they voted for Hillary.

ELECTION ANALYSIS

The Source Of Our Rage: The Ruling Elites Are Protected From The Consequences Of It’s Dominance, by Charles Hugh Smith, at oftwominds.com. Excerpt from the article, “There are very few opportunities for powerless non-elites to register their disapproval of the nation’s Ruling elite and the corrupt status quo. Voting for an outsider in a national election is one such rare opportunity.”

The Intelligentsia Takes A Hit,, by Peter Klein, at mises.org. Excerpt from the article: “…there is an important silver lining to this year’s election season. Public skepticism of the establishment media, think-tanks, academics, and other members of the intelligentsia is at an all-time high.”

Surprise, Surprise, The Disconnected Plutocrat Lost, by Victor Davis Hanson, at victorhanson.com. Excerpt from the article: “Clinton in the last weeks talked of the electorate as if it was a faceless hyphenated Borg – Latinos this, African Americans that, the gay vote, women voters – without any realization that she was referring to millions of Americans by their appearance rather than their essence as unique individuals. In normal times, all that pandering would have been seen as illiberal.”

“The Jig Is Up: America’s Voters Just Fired Their Ruling Elite, by David Stockman, at zerohedge.com. Excerpt from the article: “America’s voters fired their ruling elites last night. After 30 years of arrogant misrule and wantonly planting the seeds of economic and financial ruin throughout Flyover America, the Wall Street/Washington establishment and its mainstream media tools have been repudiated like never before in modern history. During the course of the past year, upwards of 70 million citizens – 59 million for Trump and 13 million for Bernie Sanders – have voted for dramatic change.”

Who Lost: A Biased Media, Pundits, Pollsters, Political Parties, Warmongers, The Corporatocracy, Pay To Play Grifters, Neoliberals, by Charles Hugh Smith, at oftwominds.com. Excerpt from the article: “The punditry applied a double standard to Trump and Hillary. Trump’s speeches and ethically questionable history were judged by moral standards, and he was declared unfit. Hillary’s actions, on the other hand, were judged by strictly legalistic standards: well, you can’t indict her, so she’s fit for office. Dear Punditry: you can’t use double standards to promote your biases and retain any shred of credibility.”

The Unenviable Next President, by Victor Davis Hanson, at victorhanson.com. Excerpt from the article: “The next president will be facing economic stagnation, record debt, racial division, looming large and ongoing small wars abroad, and a health care system in ruins. Common to all these problems is that tough solutions – fiscal discipline, recalibrating the tax code, restoration of deterrence, and a new health insurance model – will be as controversial and painful as is the current unsustainable slide into chaos.”

Five Things Trump’s Surprise Victory Should Teach The Media, by Gracy Olmstead, at thefederalist.com. Excerpt from the article: “Media that speak only to themselves are not only useless – they’re depressing. They’ve lost sight of any truth but their own, and in the process, have lost the trust of those who formerly turned to them for information and insight.”

Hillary Spent Nearly Twice As Much Per Vote As Trump – For Nothing, at zerohedge.com. So much for the theory that big money buys elections.

Five States Passed Ballot Measures For The Unemployment Causing Minimum Wage Regulation, at economicpolicyjournal.com. CA, NV, AZ, MA, ME, all passed minimum wage issues. All these states voted for Hillary.

San Francisco Passed Soda Tax, at econolmicpolicyjournal.com. How could anyone live in this nanny state.

Trump’s Opening Act: A Trillion Dollar Infrastructure Spending, at economicpolicyjournal.com. Don’t do this. It is a waste of scarce resources. Read – Infrastructure Spending Doesn’t Grow The Economy, at mises.org.

SOME FUN

There Are The Celebrities Who Vowed To Leave America If Trump Wins, at zerohedge.com. The question is will Canada accept these luminaries? For that answer, Read here, Meanwhile, From Canada.

Yale Professor Cancels Exam For Snowflake Students Distraught At Election Results, at theburningplatform.com. We have raised a generation which can’t handle not getting their way. Maybe we should give them a participation trophy.

A Few Cold Hard Facts For Snowflakes, at theburningplatform.com. This article comes with a trigger warning. If you are a p#$$% don’t read this.

 

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Must Reads For The Week 11/5/16

Posted November 5, 2016 by austrianaddict
Categories: Must Reads For The Week
Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

The Breakdown Of The Rule Of Law

“Nobody Is Above The Law. Guaranteed. Full Stop”: Meltdown At The Justice Department Exposes Obama’s Lies, at zerohedge.com. Nobody is above the law except elites in government who espouse the leftist agenda.

DOJ’s Loretta Lynch Tried To Squash Comey’s Letter To Congress, at zerohedge.com. Lynch didn’t empanel a grand jury to hear the evidence in Hillary’s email investigation. She met with Bill Clinton on the tarmac at the Phoenix airport. And she probably can’t figure out why the FBI is thumbing their nose at her orders to squash the investigation

Hillary Clinton’s 38-Year History Of Sleaze And Corruption, by Dan Mitchell, at freedomandprosperity.com. For all the younger people who don’t remember the first Clinton Presidency. Here is a recap.

John Podesta’s Best Friend At The DOJ To Be In Charge Of DOJ’s Probe Into Huma’s Emails, at zerohedge.com. Who trusts that this guy will do his job wherever the evidence leads?

“Don’t Repeat That To Anybody” Clinton And Brazile Personally Implicated In Project Veritas Video, at zerohedge.com. This isn’t a conspiracy theory. This is just people actually colluding to reach a particular end.

Secret Recordings Fueled Mutinous FBI Investigation of Clintons Despite DOJ Orders To Stand Down, at zerohedge.com. The FBI agents are disregarding what their superiors order them to do.

Why Comey Reopened The Hillary Investigation, at lewrockwell.com. Pressure from his subordinates outweighed the pressure from his superiors.

The ruling class better hope we citizens don’t start acting like the people employed by these agencies.

 

Government Intervention In The Market = Disaster

Let’s start with a quote from Ludwig von Mises: “Economic history is a long record of Government policies that failed because they were designed with a bold disregard for the laws of economics.”

Government Pension Plans Are Headed For Disaster, by Robert Fellner, at mises.org. Economic reality can’t be stopped by accounting tricks.

Two Arguments Against The Fed We Should Make Over And Over Again, By Jeff Deist, at mises.com. Our dollar has lost purchasing power because of inflation, defined as money printing. Because of inflation the first receivers of the printed money are skimming people’s savings from them.

Make Sugar A Delicacy, by Chris Calton, at mises.org. Government import quotas on sugar hurts the consumer because he is paying higher prices . The government can get away with this because the cost is spread across all consumers.

The Devaluation Of Higher Education, by Carmen Elena Dorobat, at mises.org. Big and small businesses hiring people out of college is what should determine the value of a degree. Not Government subsidizing young people’s education.

Blame Government, Not Markets For Monopoly, by Ron Paul, at mises.org. Government creates monopolies because it regulates competition out of the market. Markets force businesses to satisfy the customer.

The Obamacare Tipping Point, by Richard Kocur, at mises.org. When you increase the demand for something and decrease the supply of that same something, what happens to its price?

 

Cartoons

More cartoons from theburningplatform click here.

Political Cartoons by Chip Bok

Political Cartoons by Chip Bok

Political Cartoons by Steve Kelley

These Next Three Cartoons Sum Up The Different Ways People Are Thinking About Their Choice On Election Day.

Political Cartoons by Michael Ramirez

Political Cartoons by Ken Catalino

Political Cartoons by Gary Varvel

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2016 Presidential Election: Let’s Look At The Electoral College Map

Posted November 3, 2016 by austrianaddict
Categories: Econ. 101
Tags: , , , ,

United States Electoral Map - Vector Illustration of United States map with projected electoral states. Each of the states are grouped into separate, stroked shapes which can be easily edited.

The electoral college is what you need to look at to understand how the 2016 Trump vs. Hillary presidential election will turn out.

To win the presidency a candidate needs 270 electoral votes. When a candidate wins the popular vote in a particular state, he wins all the electoral votes from that state. The amount of electoral votes for each state is the sum of the congressional districts in each state plus the amount of Senators from each state which is 2.

I’ve looked at the last 4 presidential elections to see a pattern on how each state votes. There are solid Democrat and Republican states that are pretty much locks to vote the same way this year. Here is the list of these states and the number of electoral votes for each.

Vote Democrat

Washington -12, Oregon -7, California -55, Minnesota -10, Illinois -20, New York -29, Massachusetts -11, Connecticut -7, Rhode Island -4, New Jersey -14, Delaware -3, Maryland -10, Vermont -3, Maine -4, Hawaii -4, D.C. -3, Michigan -16, Wisconsin -10, Pennsylvania -20.

Total of 242 electoral votes. Need 28 to win.

Vote Republican

Texas -38, Louisiana -8, Mississippi -6, Alabama -9, Tennessee -11, Kentucky -8, West Virginia -5,  Arkansas -6, Missouri -10, Oklahoma -7, Kansas -6, Nebraska -5, South Dakota,-3, North Dakota -3, Montana -3, Idaho -4, Utah -6, Arizona -11,  Alaska -3, Indiana -11, South Carolina -9, Georgia -16,

Total of 188 electoral votes. Need 82 to win.

As you can see the Democrats have a built-in edge in winning every Presidential election.

Solid States That Could Possibly Be Flipped

I see three states for Democrats and three states for Republicans that you need to look at on election night to see how the election will turn out. These are the states in italics above. Michigan, Wisconsin, and Pennsylvania for the Dems, and Indiana, Georgia, and South Carolina for the Reps. If these states are really close, or vote opposite of the party they voted for the last 4 years, you will have an idea of how the election is going to turn out. If any of the other solid states go the other way, you’ll know who is going to win. But I don’t see any of the non italicized states flipping.

Marginal States

If the solid states stay with their party, we can now look at the marginal states to get an idea of how things are trending. There are three states that lean Democrat, and one state that leans Republican.

These states are New Hampshire -4, New Mexico -5, and Iowa -6, leaning Democrat. North Carolina -15, leans Republican.

Once again, if some of these states vote for the other party you have an idea how the election is going. I think Iowa could possibly go Republican.

If these states go the way they leaning, the Democrat candidate would have 257 electoral votes. He would only need 13 votes to win. The Republican candidate would have 203 electoral votes. He would need 67 to win.

Toss Up States

Florida -29, Ohio -18, Virginia -13, Colorado -9, and Nevada -6, are the 5 toss-up states that have voted for the presidential winner in the last 4 presidential elections, meaning they have voted twice for Dems and twice for Reps.

Since the Democrats would only need 13 electoral votes to win, if they take one from the group of Florida, Ohio, or Virginia they win. Even if they lose those three states, if they win both Colorado and Nevada they win.

The Republicans must win Florida, Ohio, and Virginia. If they sweep those three they still need to win either Colorado or Nevada to win the presidency.

What To Look For?

When you watch the election returns next Tuesday night, look for the toss-up and marginal states where the polls close at 7:00 or 7:30 eastern standard time. These states are New Hampshire, North Carolina, Virginia, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Florida. If these states early results show a trend toward one side or the other, or if these states are called early for one side or the other, you will know how the election will turn out and will be able to go to bed early.

Conclusion

No one knows how this is going to turn out because this is such a different kind of election. On the one hand you have a political insider who is playing the game of politics according to Hoyle. On the other hand you have a wild card with no political experience who isn’t playing the game of politics according to Hoyle. Anything can, and probably will, happen in these next five days. So buckle up and hold on tight.

 

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Thomas Sowell: Random Thoughts

Posted November 1, 2016 by austrianaddict
Categories: Miscellaneous
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Thomas Sowell

Here are some of Thomas Sowell’s recent Random Thoughts (click here). Dr. Sowell’s greatest gift is he always makes us think.

-“It is astonishing that some people think that the answer to the problems of ObamaCare is to go to a “single payer” system. But “single payer” is just another way of saying “government monopoly.” does anyone pay attention to how government monopolies operate – from the local DMV to Veterans Administration hospitals?”

-“Politics has turned the lofty ideal of equality into the ugly reality of resentments of other people’s achievements – and a feeling that the world owes you something, while you owe nobody anything, not even common decency.”

-“Why  should the fate of the economy depend on the guesswork of the Federal Reserve – and the guesswork of the stock market about what the Federal Reserve will guess?”

–“Politicians have learned to call their spending of the taxpayers’ money “investment, ” even when it is just pouring money down a bottomless pit, in order to win votes from the recipients.”

-“Hillary Clinton has performed the verbal magic of turning her years of repeated disastrous decisions in foreign policy into a political asset called “experience.”

-“The political left’s hatred of Donald Trump is ironic, because both he and they have the same pattern of automatic demonizing of those who disagree with their views, rather than confronting opposing arguments with hard evidence or convincing logic.”

–“Have we reached the ultimate stage of absurdity where some people are held responsible for things that happened before they were born, while other people are not held responsible for what they themselves are doing today?”

-“If the media seriously wanted to report the news – instead of spinning it – they could stop calling rioters “protesters” and stop calling terrorists “militants.”

–“Each political party has picked a loser this year. Unfortunately, one of them is going to win, and then the whole country can lose, big time.”

-“One of the mysteries of the ages is why the political left has, for centuries, lavished so much attention on the well-being of criminals and paid so little attention to their victims.”

–“The monumental tragedies of the 20th century – a world-wide Great Depression, two devastating World Wars, the Holocaust, famines killing millions in the soviet Union and tens of millions in China – should leave us with a sobering sense of the threats to any society. But this generation’s ignorance of history leaves them free to be frivolous – until the next catastrophe strikes, and catches them completely by surprise.”

 

Related Article – Thomas Sowell, “The Point Of No Return“, at austrianaddict.com.

Related Article – Thomas Sowell: Random Thoughts, at austrianaddict.com.

Related Article – Thomas Sowell” Random Thoughts On The Passing Scene, at austrianaddict.com.

Related Article – Thomas Sowell: Random Thoughts, at austrianaddict.com.

Related Article – Random Thoughts By Thomas Sowell, at austrianaddict.com.

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Victor Davis Hanson: American Empire, Immigration Policy, The 2016 Election

Posted November 1, 2016 by austrianaddict
Categories: Government and Politics
Tags: , , , , , , ,

Here is a video you should watch before next Tuesday’s election. Victor Davis Hanson talks with Peter Robinson in this segment on Uncommon Knowledge from the Hoover Institute.

Is America an imperialist nation? Is there danger if American influence declines on the world stage? What about China, Iran, Russia? Is an open border immigration policy beneficial as compared to what American immigration policy was in the early 1900’s? What are our choices in the 2016 election? Victor Davis Hanson gives great insight in the answers to these questions.

Excerpts from the video:

On American Empire: “We are a funny sort of empire. By every calculus we should be empirical. That’s what people do. They try to aggrandize their land, their territory, their natural resources…….We don’t take people’s land. We have an empirical order, but it’s a post WWII order in which we set the rules and the terms of commerce and trade. We’ve allow Japan or Germany or China with much less military power than us to beat us economically…….Americans are endowed with an exceptional moral sense. We are a generous people, whose checkered imperial interventions in the past rarely proved profitable or exploitive.”

“75 years after WWII is an aberration in world history. Peace is a parenthesis….and war is the natural order of things and in a vacuum of American power were going to see that very quickly.”

On Immigration: (starts at 21:21) “Historically there’s three elements to immigration that adjudicates whether it failed or was successful. 1) Is it diverse? Do people come from all over or do they just come from a specific area? 2) Is it measured? Does an immigrant come in and meet ten natives? do they learn to assimilate and integrate and intermarry, or do they come in mass and create enclaves? 3) Do they come under some legal auspices? Is it meritocratic? Do they learn the language?”

“If the conditions are met as it has been mostly in Americas history, than it works wonderfully. It enriches the body politic. The people are invigorated by these new people who want to be American more than they do.”

“It has to be diverse so one particular group is not used by domestic political parties for their own electoral calculations as happened in the 19th century.”

On Obama The Divider: (starts at 27:05) “President Obama has systematically adopted a rhetoric and an agenda that is predicated on dividing up the country according to tribal grievances, in hopes of recalibrating various factions into a majority grievance culture. He has succeeded politically. but in doing so he has nearly torn the country apart.”

“When the President came into office he did things that I hadn’t seen in my lifetime. I’ve never heard a presidential candidate say “typical white person”….Woodrow Wilson was the last president to identify that strongly with race...”

On Hillary And Trump: (starts at 30:18) “….The Clinton’s have offered something that no ex-president had ever offered….He had a spouse who he said would be back in here. He said she’s a viable presidential candidate in a way that no other first ladies ever were, and I’m going to be back here with her as defacto President, and therefore you better invest in her as Secretary of State through this foundation and we’re going to remember. That’s the font of all their ethical problems. They had a premise that was predicated on selling influence for money.”

“The elites can’t stand Trump and he should be down by 20 points. But he’s not. He represents an anger at a much over used word elites. Elites are people who, not just by money, basically have a utopian vision that they feel does not apply to themselves. And they have the money culture and influence to navigate around the ramifications of their own ideology. What do I mean by that? Mark Zuckerberg lectures all of us about how a wall is bad and then builds a wall or tries to build a Maginot line around his own home. Or were told how terrible charter schools are, and Obama puts his kids in Sidwell Friends……Trump is Hillary Clinton’s worst nightmare, he’s a vampire’s mirror for the Republican establishment.”

 

Related Article – Who Are Those Darn Elites, at victorhanson.com.

Related Article – From Greek Tragedy To American Therapy, at victorhanson.com.

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Must Reads For The Week 10/29/16

Posted October 29, 2016 by austrianaddict
Categories: Must Reads For The Week
Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Unprecedented Surge In Election Fraud From Around The Country, at zerohedge.com. There has always been election fraud. Why would anyone think it wouldn’t increase as the size and scope of government has increased.

Public Faith In Elections Falls As The State Grows, by Ryan McMaken, at mises.org. The fact that a growing number of people don’t trust individuals in positions with government power is a good thing for individual liberty. Our founders didn’t trust individuals in positions of government power. That is why they attempted to limit the power of government with the Constitution.

Faced With Angry Voters, The Elites Sour On Democracy, by Ryan McMaken, at mises.com. The voters are wise when they agree with the elites. But when they don’t vote the way the elites want, the voters either had a temper tantrum or are ignorant of the nuances that only the elites can understand.

New York Declares War On Home Sharing (Airbnb), by Brittany Hunter, at mises.org. Just as the taxi cartel doesn’t like Uber, the hotel cartel doesn’t like Airbnb. The status quo will do anything to maintain their government sanctioned monopoly position.

Anti-Racist Berkeley Protesters Demand ‘Spaces Of Color’, Harass White Students Trying To Pass, at heatst.com. They want to bring back segregation? I thought they were for diversity? Why do people cave in to this kind of stupidity? If you give in just one time to these cultural terrorists, they will be emboldened and their demands will never end.

Catholic University BANS “Unborn Lives Matter” Posters, by Amanda Prestigiacomo, at dailywire.com. DePaul University president Father Dennis Holtschneider declared, “he would prohibit them in order to shield his students from “bigotry: under the “cove of free speech.”  Does the Padre understand that planned parenthood abortion mills target minority neighborhoods? Planned Parenthood founder Margaret Sanger was a racist who wanted blacks to be “exterminated”. Read here, Planned Parenthood Black Genocide. So, Father Dennis Holtschneider, “Unborn Lives Matter” means “Black Lives Matter”.

Cheryl Mills Tells Podesta “We Need To Clean This Up – Obama Has Emails From Her, at zerohedge.com. This is ultimately why Hillary wasn’t indicted. To protect Obama. He was knowingly communicating with her on her private server. Watergate was about a third-rate burglary. This is much worse. This is about national security. Clinton and Obama think they are above the law.

“Don’t Repeat This To Anyone”, – Hillary Clinton And Donna Brazile Personally Implicated In Latest Project Veritas Video, at zerohedge.com. This is an example of political dirty tricks brought to you by the Clinton campaign.

CBS Anchor Confused About Why Obamacare Premiums Are Skyrocketing.

These morons don’t understand economics. Read here The Reality Of Obamacare.

Excerpt from the article: “Obamacare incentivizes an increase in demand for a scarce good, and a decrease in the supply of this same good. The scarce good becomes more scarce as supply and demand move in opposite directions. The price has to go up.”

 

No Child Left Alone: Getting The Government Out Of Parenting, at reason.com. Short video of Abby Schacter, who wrote, No Child Left Alone, talking about Government intervention into parenting. Excerpt from the article: “I don’t know if parents [understand] that under the headline ‘we’re going to keep your children safe’ [or] we’re going to protect the kids’ that that is really code for ‘we’re taking your rights away.”

 

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Antonin Scalia: Understanding The Constitution

Posted October 25, 2016 by austrianaddict
Categories: Government and Politics
Tags: , , , , ,

The constitution of the United States of American with a vintage flag

The ideological and political battle for Justice Scalia’s seat on the Supreme Court can be summed up in this statement.

“What should the broad concepts in the Constitution mean today? vs. What did these concepts mean when they were adopted?”

The first allows the power of government to grow with it’s only constraint being what leaders can get away with politically.

The second constrains the growth of government to its powers listed in the Constitution.

Here are some videos that capture Justice Scalia wisdom concerning this topic.

Justice Scalia’s Opening Remarks At A 2011 Senate Judiciary Hearing.

Excerpt: “I ask students: what do you think is the reason that America is such a free country? What is it in our constitution that makes us what we are? They answer, freedom of speech, freedom of the press…….those marvelous provisions in the bill of rights. I tell them if you think a bill of rights is what sets us apart, you’re crazy.”

“Every banana republic in the world has a bill of rights…..the bill of rights of the former Soviet Union was better than ours…..These are what our founders would call a parchment guarantee. And the reason is because the real Constitution of the Soviet Union…..the real structure….didn’t prevent the centralization of power in one person or in one party. When that (centralization) happens, the game is over. The bill of rights is just what our framers would call a parchment guarantee.”

“The real key to the distinctiveness of America is the structure of our government……People today say there is a dysfunction of government because there’s disagreement and gridlock. The framers would have said, “yes, that’s exactly the way we set it up. We wanted this to be power contradicting power”. Americans should learn to love the separation of power, the gridlock. Which the framers believed would be the main protection of minorities.”

Justice Scalia Comments About “Diversity” On The Supreme Court.

Excerpt: “….I agree that (on the Supreme Court) you should have different people who reach different results. But one would think that after 200 years there would be some consensus on what we think we’re doing when we interpret the constitution. These are wildly divergent views.”

“Are we taking these broad concepts such as equal protection and due process and asking, “what should these concepts mean today?” That’s one view. On the other hand are we saying “what did these concepts mean when they were adopted”…..The difficulty in figuring that out, the historical problem of doing that, isn’t perfect, that it’s going to solve every problem, but it solves an awful lot of problems. Especially the most controversial ones.”

“It’s not my burden to prove that the historical approach is perfect. It is just my burden to prove that it’s better than anything else and the  anything else is the other approach, that it’s up to the judges to say what these things mean today. This is an immense amount of power in judges hands.”

Piers Morgan Interviews Justice Scalia In 2013.

Piers Morgan always tries to be an intellectual bully to everyone he interviews, especially those he disagrees with. There is no doubt he disagrees with Scalia’s world view, but he knows he can’t “intellectually” bully him. He tries to hit Scalia with verbal jabs but they are skillfully parried away by Justice Scalia.

This is the best interview Piers Morgan has ever done.

Part I

 

Part II

 

Related Article – Walter E. Williams: The Constitution, at austrianaddict.com.

Related Article – How Big Should Government Be?  at austrianaddict.com.

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Must Reads For The Week 10/22/16

Posted October 21, 2016 by austrianaddict
Categories: Must Reads For The Week
Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

A NATIONALIZED SINGLE PAYER HEALTH CARE SYSTEM IS THE GOAL

Obama On Skyrocketing Obamacare Premiums, “I Had Nothing To Do With It” at tammybruce.com. Obamacare created the incentives that produced the “skyrocketing insurance premiums”. I would say Obama is a moron, but he is just a typical politician.

Obamacare Premiums Are Going Up, Up, Up. This is a great explanation of why the costs are going up. It is by design.

Obama’s Plan Was Always To Cook The Frog Slowly And Turn Obamacare Into Hillarycare Nationalized HealthCare, at economicpolicyjournal.com. We have been saying this from the start. Obamacare was the next step toward a government-run single payer healthcare system. No one wants to believe that it was designed to fail. But is was.

Hillary Email Confirms She Wants Obamacare To Collapse, at economicpolicyjournal,com. Hillary has been working for nationalized healthcare for years.

ELECTION STUFF

Why Did Vote-Rigging Robert Creamer Visit The White House Over 200 Times During Obama Administration, at zerohedge.com. Trump talking about a rigged election takes away from the fact that there has been voter fraud  going on for years. And the Democrats are the perps.

Fact Check: Hillary Lied Said 90% Of Clinton Foundations Go To Charity. Actual Number? 5.7%, at informationliberation.com. The Clinton Foundation is nothing more than a money laundering scheme for the Clintons and their cronies. Where does 94.3% of the money go?

“The Sons Of Alinsky” Getting Paid $3:00 An Hour To Protest Low Pay, at economicpolicyjournal.com. The fact that they are paying for a rent a mob for political dirty tricks is one thing. Paying them $3 an hour while trying to mandate a $15  minimum wage on the rest of us is something else. Do as I say not as I do.

Clinton’s False Assurances About Her Respect For The Second Amendment, by Jacob Sullum, at reason.com. Do you believe Hillary Clinton when she says this? I don’t believe a word she says.  “I did not send any classified Emails on my email server”.

Leaked Audio: Clinton Says Supreme Court Is ‘Wrong’ On Second Amendment, at freebeacon.com. Some of my Democrat friends tell me that they don’t want to take guns away. I tell them that’s great, but you are not the leaders of your party. I believe them. But Hillary? That’s a different story. If she gets elected, the left will be ready to act when she appoints a Supreme Court Justice. They will bring a gun rights case to a friendly district court which will eventually make its way to the Supreme Court. The court will overturn the Heller case in a 5-4 decision, and the second amendment will be meaningless words on paper. Mark my words.

Political Cartoons by Henry Payne

ECONOMIC STUFF

Why The Hell Is Socialism Gaining So Much Popularity? at economicpolicyjournal.com. Many people think socialism is the government helping people in need (aka a safety net). This is not socialism. Socialism is government ownership of the means of production. There is a difference between a free market economy hampered by government, and the government owning the means of production. Look at Venezuela if you want to see the results of Socialism.

Harassing Uber, at economicpolicyjournal.com. The status quo taxi cartel is trying to get the government to use its monopoly power to protect the cartel’s monopoly position that was originally created by government.

How Regulation Protects Established Firms, by Peter G. Klein, at mises.org. Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein admits that, “…burdensome regulation acts as a moat around our business.” Government props up the status quo making it tougher for new competitors to enter the market.

Is Your Personal Trade Surplus With The Rest Of The World A Problem?, at fee.org. Trump and Hillary are ignorant when it comes to trade. A trade deficit or a trade surplus is meaningless economically, but politically they are of great benefit for the politician.

We Can Build Our Way Out Of The Housing Crisis, by Steven Greenhut, at reason.com. The reason prices for homes in California are so high is because Government restrictions and regulations constrain the supply of housing. Low supply and high demand means higher prices. The high prices ration the short supply.

Highest-Paying College Majors, Gender Composition Of Students Earning Degrees In Those Fields, And The Gender Pay Gap, by Mark Perry, at carpediemblog. There is a gender pay gap because of the decisions made by men and women. Here are the top seven degrees by percentage of men and women who earn them, and the average salaries of the jobs people get when they graduate with these degrees. The subjective value of men and women is obviously different.

MEN

Computer Science                    82%    $70,000

Information Technology        82%    $64,008

Management Info. Systems   82%    $58,000

Electrical Engineering             80%    $68,438

Mechanical Engineering         80%   $68,000

Chemical Engineering             80%   $65,000

Industrial Engineering            80%   $64,381

WOMEN

Nursing                   84%   $58,928

Social Work             82%   $41,656

Education                80%   $43,000

Psychology             77%   $42,000

English                     69%   $45,000

Spanish                    69%   $44,256

Journalism              65%   $45,000

Communications    65%   $44,190

 

From Laissez Faire Capitalism.

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Must Reads For The Week 10/ 15/ 16

Posted October 15, 2016 by austrianaddict
Categories: Must Reads For The Week
Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Obamacare’s Demise Has Arrived, at economicpolicyjournal.com. We tried to tell everyone that economic laws wouldn’t allow Obamacare to work. Now 60% of Tennessee’s Obamacare consumers will lose their coverage in 2017. Remember when Obama said: “if you like your plan you can keep your plan.” He was lying just like he was lying about those “shovel ready jobs”. Remember when he said: “it looks like those shovel ready jobs weren’t so shovel ready.”

1.4 Million Americans Who “Like Their Healthcare Plan” Set To Lose Them In 2017, at zerohedge.com. As insurance companies pull out of Obamacare exchanges, millions are going to lose their health insurance plans. Central planning provides less care at a higher price. Markets delivers the best possible care at the lowest possible price.

The Reason LA Has 10,000 Food Trucks And Chicago Only Has 70, at economicpolicyojurnal.com. The Chicago city council’s regulations has chosen the incumbent brick and mortar restaurants over the newer food truck businesses. Monopolies can only exist with government sanction. This is like the incumbant taxi cartel trying to get local governments to stop Uber from entering the market.

How Crony Contact Lens Manufacturers Are Trying To Destroy The Free Market In Contact Lenses, at economicpolicyjournal.com. Johnson and Johnson is trying to use government to restore its monopoly position in contact lens sales. Instead of using their time and effort to satisfy consumers, Johnson and Johnson is putting its resources toward lobbying government to regulate competitors out of business. Once again the consumer loses.

“Sharing Economy” Reveals That Licensing Laws Are Really About Shutting Down The Competition, by Brittany Hunter, at mises.org. The sharing economy has provided opportunities for individuals to start their own businesses. Existing businesses want to have the final say if these new competitors are allowed to enter the market. In a free market these existing businesses wouldn’t have the power to stop the competition. They would have to provide better service to keep their customers. Unfortunately we live in a hampered market economy where government has the power to force these competitors out of the market. Status quo businesses lobby government to get them to use force to keep competitors from entering the market. The status quo gains at the expense of the consumer and the upstart businesses.

When Government Fails Papa John Delivers, at economicpolicyjournal.com. An 87 year old Florida grandmother lost power last week because of Hurricane Matthew. Her family, who lived in Nebraska, couldn’t get a hold of her. They called area police and fire departments to get them to reach her to see if she was OK. When police and fire couldn’t get the job done, the grandson decided to call Papa Johns and have a pizza delivered to his grandmother. If it could be delivered, they knew she was OK. They had the delivery man call them when he arrived at her house so their grandmother could talk to them. Markets work better than government.

The Fed Who Cried Growth, by Jonathan Newman, at mises.org. The Fed can’t even predict it’s own behavior. They keep saying they will raise interest rates but for some reason they never pull the trigger. Maybe the economy isn’t in as great of shape as they are telling us it is.

Janet Yellen Tries To Explain The Elusive “Great Recovery”, at zerohedge.com. When you read, or worse yet, listen to one of these Fed central bankers talk it is mind boggling. They use words that sound like their saying something so nuanced that regular people can’t understand their brilliance, but they are actually saying nothing. And that is what they are trying to accomplish. Their monetary policies haven’t worked and they are trying to cover their asses with words.

Us Economy To Grow Just 1.4% In 2016 After Atlanta Fed Slashes Q3 GDP To 1.9%, Half Its Original Estimate, at zerohedge.com. The Fed can’t even print a solid GDP number, even though they have printed $4 plus trillion over the last 8 years. You would think that the policy makers at the Fed would have figured out that you have to first produce before you can consume. Money printing is consumption before production. All money printing does is allow the people who receive it to go out into the market and demand goods with pieces of paper. It is no different than if I counterfeited a $50 dollar bill and purchased $50 dollars worth of goods from a store. I would be stealing these goods just as if I had shoplifted the goods. The Fed is no different than a counterfeiter.

 

CARTOONS

From the burningplatform.

Political Cartoons by Nate Beeler

Political Cartoons by Steve Breen

Political Cartoons by Jerry Holbert

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Thomas Sowell: Academic Curtain vs. Iron Curtain

Posted October 11, 2016 by austrianaddict
Categories: Government and Politics
Tags: , , , ,

Thomas Sowell

My favorite writer is Thomas Sowell. As I’ve said many times; he writes about complex concepts in a manor that regular people like me can understand. If I hadn’t stumbled across Thomas Sowell in 95, I wouldn’t have had the fundamental base to understand Mises, Hayek, Rothbard, etal.

His recent article titled, The Academic Curtain (read here), is just another example of his ability as a communicator and teacher.

In this article he compares the Iron Curtain surrounding the Communist bloc of nations and the “Academic Curtain” surrounding our educational system in general and college education in particular.

The Iron and the Academic Curtains isolate the people inside of them from ideas which are not in line with what the Communists or Academics want their subjects to hear. The conventional wisdom pushed by the anointed is that a centrally planned economy is superior to a free market economy and the individual is subordinate to the state.

Here are some excerpts from the article:

“Back in the days of the Cold War between the Communist bloc of nations and the Western Democracies, the Communists maintained pervasive restrictions around Eastern  Europe that were aptly called an “iron Curtain,” isolating the people in its bloc from the ideas of the West and physically obstructing their escape. “

“One of the few things that could penetrate the “iron curtain” were ideas conveyed on radio waves. “the Voice of America” network broadcast to the peoples of the Soviet bloc, so that they were never completely isolated, and hearing only what the Communist dictatorships wanted them to hear.”

“Ironically, despite the victory of democracy over dictatorship that brought the Cold War to an end, within American society there has slowly but steadily developed in too many of our own colleges and universities a set of restrictions on what can be said on campus either by students or professors or by outside speakers with views that contradict the political correctness of our time.”

“There is no barbed wire around our campuses, nor armed guards keeping unwelcome ideas out. So there is no “iron curtain.” But there is a curtain, and it has its effect.”

“One effect is that many of the rising generation can go from elementary school through postgraduate education at our leading colleges and universities without ever hearing a coherent presentation of a vision of the world that is fundamentally different from that of the political left.”

“.…Despite the fervor with which demographic “diversity? is proclaimed as a prime virtue – without a speck of evidence as to its supposed benefits – diversity of ideas gets no such respect.”

“Students are unlikely to go through college without being assigned to read “The Communist Manifesto” – often in more than one course – while a classic like “The Federalist” is seldom assigned reading, even thought it is a very readable and profound explanation of the principles on which the Constitution of the United States is based, Written by three of the men who actually wrote the Constitution.”

“While there is no “iron curtain” around our campuses, there is a curtain, and its effects are dangerously close to the effects produced by the “iron curtain” around the Soviet bloc. What is lacking is anything like the Voice of America broadcasts to pierce the academic curtain.”

“In an electronic age, there are plenty of sources from which forbidden facts and suppressed views can be beamed into the many electronic devices used by college students.” There are many recorded speeches and interviews of outstanding thinkers, from the past and the present, with viewpoints different from the prevailing groupthink on campus and these can be presented directly to students with electronic devices.”

“Someone from the real world beyond the ivy-covered enclaves would have to do it. And it is not yet clear who would do it or who would finance it. Perhaps some of those donors who have kept on writing checks to their alma maters, while the latter surrendered repeatedly to ideological intolerance, might consider such a project. Campus mob could not shout down thousands of scattered iPads.”

 

BONUS VIDEO OF THOMAS SOWELL.

The Hoover Institute presents Thomas Sowell on Uncommon Knowledge talking about his book, Wealth Poverty and Politics, with Peter Robinson.

Theme of the book: “There is no explanation needed for poverty. The species began in poverty. So what you really need to know is what are the things that enabled some countries, some groups within countries, to become prosperous.”

 Related Article – Thomas Sowell: The Economics and Politics Of Race, at austrianaddict.com.
Related Article – Observable Differences Between Cultures, at austrianaddict.com.
Related Article – Education System Is A  Monopoly  Of The Political Left, at austrianaddict.com.
 Related Article –Thomas Sowell’s Vision of The Anointed, at austrianaddict.com.

 

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