Posted tagged ‘Cartoons’

Must Reads For The Week 5/16/20

May 18, 2020

 

LET’S LAUGH

Starting with this George Carlin video.

Germs And Our Immune Systems

Click here if this is taken down.

Some more. This George Carlin video is one of my favorites.

Saving The Planet.

Click here if taken down.

One more.

Jim Carrey is Environmental Guy. From the show In Living Color.

 

COVID REVEALS TYRANNY and LIBERTY PUSHES BACK

I’ve read about how the Berlin wall went up. The communists just strung some barbed wire between East and West Berlin. A couple days later they started to put up a more permanent  concrete wall. If President Kennedy would have had the barbed wire torn down when it first went up, it probably would have deterred the Communist government.

You can’t appease tyrants. Every little power grab will lead to bigger power grabs. They must be stopped when they first attempt to take your liberty.

 

Gov. Inslee To Washington Restaurants: Want To Reopen? You’ll Have To Help Us Track Citizen’s Movements, by Chris Field, at theblaze.com.     There are not enough government employees to implement all of these tyrannical rules. Government can only become tyrannical if we allow it.

HU Facial Recognition Software Predicts Criminality, at archive.is/N1HVe.     This is the movie Minority Report.  This is unconstitutional on many levels.

Twitter Takes Its COVID-19 Censorship Into Overdrive, at zerohedge.com.        Big media pushes the Big Government party line. These “free speech platforms” don’t like free speech.

More People Dying At Home during Covid-19 – UK Analysis, at theguardian.com.       To politicians and “experts”, these lives are not important. They are collateral damage in our war against COVID-19.             Excerpt from the article:

“About 8,000 more people have died in their own homes since the start of the coronavirus pandemic than in normal times, a Guardian analysis has found, as concerns grow over the number avoiding going to hospital.”

“Of that total, 80% died of conditions unrelated to Covid-19, according to their death certificates. Doctors’ leaders have warned that fears and deprioritisation of non-coronavirus patients are taking a deadly toll.”

Georgia COVID Hospitalizations Drop After State Reopens, at zerohedge.com.       This is a short time sample. But it looks promising. Maybe we have built up enough herd immunity to make a difference in spite of Government edicts that made herd immunity more difficult to acquire.

If US Is Unprepared For A Second Wave Of Coronavirus, Fauci Warns Country Could Be In For ‘a Bad Fall and A Bad Winter’, by Christina Maxouris, at ccn.com.           To add to my above comments; Fauci has almost guaranteed a second wave because of his ‘flattening the curve’ policy. By flattening the curve he extended the curve. I hope we have built up enough herd immunity so we don’t have a second wave.

As Waffle Restaurant Defies Closure, Video Shows Fresno Officer’s Confrontation With Angry Customers, at abc7.com.        I am glad people are taking a stand. But these rules are putting police in a no win situation. They are tasked with enforcing arbitrary rules made by power hungry politicians. People are going to push back and someone will get hurt. Why don’t we make the rule makers go out with the police so they can deal with the consequences of the rules they came up with. Let’s see it they can explain their arbitrary rules face to face to the people who are taking a stand.

Seattle Cop Prepares To Be Fired After Refusing To Remove VIral Video Reminding Officers Not To Obey Tyrannical Orders, at zerohedge.com.          Watch this video. This cop gets it.

The Worldwide Lockdown May Be The Greatest Mistake In History, by Dennis Prager, at pjmedia.com.        Excerpt from the article:

“That’s the way it is today on planet Earth, where deceit, cowardice and immaturity now dominate almost all societies because the elites are deceitful, cowardly and immature.”

“But for those open to reading thoughts they may differ with, here is the case for why the worldwide lockdown is not only a mistake but also, possibly, the worst mistake the world has ever made. And for those intellectually challenged by the English language and/or logic, “mistake” and “evil” are not synonyms. The lockdown is a mistake; the Holocaust, slavery, communism, fascism, etc., were evils. Massive mistakes are made by arrogant fools; massive evils are committed by evil people.”

“The forcible prevention of Americans from doing anything except what politicians deem “essential” has led to the worst economy in American history since the Great Depression of the 1930s. It is panic and hysteria, not the coronavirus, that created this catastrophe. And the consequences in much of the world will be more horrible than in America.”

 

RUSSIA PROBE, FLYNN CASE, OBAMAGATE

 

Open Memorandum To Barack Obama, by Sidney Powell

Former President Obama said he can’t find precedent for Flynn dismissal. Flynn’s lawyer Sidney Powell calls him out.

Here is what former President Obama said…….“there is no precedent that anybody can find for someone who has been charged with perjury just getting off scot-free. That’s the kind of stuff where you begin to get worried that basic — not just institutional norms — but our basic understanding of rule of law is at risk.”

Her is some of Sidney Powell’s response:

“General Flynn was not charged with perjury—which requires a material false statement made under oath with intent to deceive.1 A perjury prosecution would have been appropriate and the Rule of Law applied if the Justice Department prosecuted your former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe for his multiple lies under oath in an investigation of a leak only he knew he caused.”

“McCabe lied under oath in fully recorded and transcribed interviews with the Inspector General for the DOJ. He was informed of the purpose of the interview, and he had had the benefit of counsel. He knew he was the leaker. McCabe even lied about lying. He lied to his own agents—which sent them on a “wild-goose-chase”—thereby making his lies “material” and an obstruction of justice. Yet, remarkably, Attorney General Barr declined to prosecute McCabe for these offenses.”

“Applying the Rule of Law, after declining McCabe’s perjury prosecution, required the Justice Department to dismiss the prosecution of General Flynn who was not warned, not under oath, had no counsel, and whose statements were not only not recorded, but were created as false by FBI agents who falsified the 302.

 

“It would seem your “wingman” Eric Holder is missing a step these days at Covington & Burling LLP. Indelibly marked in his memory (and one might think, yours) should be his Motion to Dismiss the multi-count jury verdict of guilty and the entire case against former United States Senator Ted Stevens. Within weeks of Mr. Holder becoming Attorney General, he moved to dismiss the Stevens prosecution in the interest of justice for the same reasons the Justice Department did against General Flynn—egregious misconduct by prosecutors who hid exculpatory evidence and concocted purported crimes.”

“As horrifying as the facts of the Stevens case were, they pale in comparison to the targeted setup, framing, and prosecution of a newly elected President’s National Security Advisor and the shocking facts that surround it. This case was an assault on the heart of liberty— our cherished system of self-government, the right of citizens to choose their President, and the hallowed peaceful transition of power.”

 

“The inability of anyone in your alumni association to find “anybody who has been charged [with anything] just getting off scot-free” would be laughable were it not so pathetic.”

“………..the egregious prosecutorial misconduct of your longest serving White House Counsel, Kathryn Ruemmler; your counter-terrorism advisor Lisa Monaco; Loretta Lynch’s DAG for the Criminal Division Leslie Caldwell; and Mueller protégé Andrew Weissmann. While they worked as federal prosecutors on the Enron Task Force—under the purported supervision of Christopher Wray—they destroyed Arthur Andersen LLP and its 85,000 jobs; sent four Merrill Lynch executives to prison on an indictment that criminalized an innocent business transaction while they hid the evidence that showed those defendants were innocent for six years. Both cases were reversed on appeal for their over-criminalization and misconduct. Indeed, Andersen was reversed by a unanimous Supreme Court.”

 

“The Mueller special counsel operation led by Andrew Weissmann and Weissmann “wannabes” specializes in prosecutorial terrorist tactics repulsive to everything “justice” is supposed to mean. These tactics are designed to intimidate their targets into pleading guilty—while punishing them and their families with the process itself and financial ruin.”

“Most important, General Flynn was honest with the FBI agents. They knew he was—and briefed that to McCabe and others three different times. At McCabe’s directions, Agent Strzok and McCabe’s “Special Counsel” Lisa Page, altered the 302 to create statements Weissmann, Mueller, Van Grack, and Zainab Ahmad could assert were false. Only the FBI agents lied—and falsified documents. The crimes are theirs alone.”

“These are just a few obvious and well-known examples to those paying any attention to criminal justice issues.

Eric Holder partner at Covington & Burling Law Firm.      Obama’s former Attorney General Eric Holder is a partner at the law firm that originally defended General Flynn. The incestuous relationship of everyone in Washington D.C. should make us suspicious of everything that goes on in that swamp.

Obama-Era Surveillance Timeline, by Sharyl Attkisson, at sharylattkisson.com.        Read what happened over Obama’s eight years before you decide what to think.

Collusion Against Trump Timeline, by Sharyl Attkisson, at sharylattkisson.com.      No comment needed. Just read what happened.

Media Mistakes In The Trump Era: The Definitive List, by Sharyl Attkisson, at sharylattkisson.com.             Can all these “mistakes” be, well, mistakes?

Top Six Revelations From House Russia Probe’s Newly Declassified Witness Interviews, by Sophie Mann, at justthenews.com.              Do you really need to see more evidence that Trump Russia collusion was nothing more than a made up hoax by politicians with the help of the main stream media?

Obamagate! Trump Tweets Carlson’s Crushing Breakdown Why The Former President Should Be Panicking, at zerohedge.com.          There is no way former President Obama will ever be held legally responsible for anything that happened during his presidency. We don’t do that to former Presidents. But Trump is using Obama’s tactics against him. He is prosecuting him in the court of public opinion. Sal Alinsky tactics?

 

SATIRICAL HEADLINES

From the babylonbee.com.

Socialism Victory! Workers No Longer Being Exploited Thanks To High Unemployment, at babylonbee.com.

Biden Campaign Hires Interpreter To Translate His Speeches Into English, at babylonbee.com.

Breaking: Dangerous Fascist At  Large At Michigan Capital And Also Some Peaceful Protesters With Guns, at babylonbee.com.

Governor Newsom Orders Ballots To Be Sent To Every Cemetery In State, at babylonbee.com.

68% Say Lockdown Shouldn’t end Until All Diseases Are Eradicated And There Is No War, Hunger, Or Suffering, at babylonbee.com.

 

CARTOONS

Political Cartoons by Tom Stiglich

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Political Cartoons by Lisa Benson

Political Cartoons by Pat Cross

 

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Must Reads For The Week 5/2/20

May 3, 2020

 

VICTOR DAVIS HANSON – CORONA, CALIFORNIA AND THE CLASSIC WORLD.

Click here if the video is taken down.

If you are shut in and have some time. Watch this interview. VDH is always insightful. If you don’t have time here are some highlights.

He is at his farm in California being interviewed by Peter Robinson. He starts out talking about what is going on in California literally right outside his window.

But the question from 19:24 to 22:33 sets up this response  (22:33 to 25:15)

“I think it’s important we don’t worship science on an alter…….”

“There is not going to be a magic bullet. Science is an evolutionary process that has a bad and a worse choice. But we want immediate and instant perfection”

“So if you tell somebody today, especially in the coastal corridors and elite global community, that if you’re not sixty and your in pretty good health, you’ve got a 99.9% chance of not dying from this virus. They will tell you, I’m can’t take that risk. Because one in a thousand is not good enough for me. Because I’m a blank, blank, blank, I’m a financier, I’m a college administrator, I’m a media elite and the world is so perfect I’m not going to risk it. And more importantly they are shielded.”

“And this is the central truth of this entire epidemic. who are the hero’s of this epidemic? I haven’t called my financial planner. I’ not helped at all by the Stanford Vice Provost of Diversity Inclusion. It doesn’t matter. I don’t think that Rachel Maddow is doing to save the United States. You know who is? Javier Lopez right now working in the almond fields. Or Joe Smith driving all night to Cosco to get toilet paper their by 6 am. Or the guy you call when your freezer blows up and you need food. And he sows up from Home Depot ad he doesn’t have a mask on and you say” Oh my God he doesn’t have a mask on,” because he’s breathing hard because he’s trying to get you a new freezer.”

“I think that’s been good. Because it really tells us that the essentials of life never change. they’re food, fuel, health, housing. And if you can’t get food. If you can’t go to a food market. If you can’t go to a Home Depot to fix something. If you can’t get fuel for your heating. You are not going to live. You can deal without all the other stuff.”

“There are people in the shadows that we neglected. We thought they were global losers and didn’t make it. I was thinking the other day, I was reading Richard the III, just for the heck of it, and I thought this must be a financial planner when a circuit breaker goes out or a baffle on his toilet doesn’t work he’ll say, “Handy man, Handy man, my kingdom for a handyman,”because he’s helpless.”

Starting at 25:20 he talks about China. Here is an excerpt:

“China is taking advantage of the crisis. China, my god, they have a better understanding of our mind than we do. They’re the most brilliant propagandists I’ve ever seen in there dealings with the western liberal mindset…..”

“…..People are starting to blame the Chinese. But remember the difference is that this media…..which is 93% negative to the Presidency, has been regurgitating Chinese talking points. And they’ve said this till were blue in the face that China is being blamed byTrump to deflect from his own culpability. That”s what they’re professing. We’re not getting through our media a dispassionate disinterested view of the threat China poses. I don’t think that’s going to be sustainable. You know why I don’t?”

“Because the modern left worships at the alter of the European Union. and the feel we want to be where the EU is in ten years. And The EUu is sick of China……because they have a much thinner margin of error in terms fuel supplies, GDP, unemployment and there very angry. And so are Canada, Australia, and Mexico. So I don’t see the propaganda is going to work indefinitely. And the other thing is the left wasn’t too worried about Chinese military domination or economic domination………They focused on human rights violations ad China has a whole potpourri of these…..”

“What I’m worried about most is not that we are going to decouple, because we are. But there are two things that really worry me. One is the process of decoupling. Sort of like a divorce…..there all happy after it’s over…..but during the process both sides lie and connive, and were not lying and conniving. I think the Chinese are not going to allow bank accounts to be unfrozen. They’re Not going to compensate companies for their factories and their investments or ay of the money thats stuck over there in China.”

” The second thing is yes we have to have pharmaceuticals. Yes we have to have rare earth minerals. Yes we have to have military technology. Yes we have to have medical supplies.”

but we have spent a large portion, percentage, of our K through 12 and our under graduate experience and our professional schools on what the Chinese would call “fluff”. Social science dash studies courses and we are not turning out the STEM (science, technology, engineering math) students or the math engineering people the we need to get a grip on these key enterprises…… I don’t think we’re prepared yet to be autonomous in the areas we need to be. And we are going to have to be careful because China has a hold over those supply chains.”

At 53:45 he is asked place the U.S, at this present moment in history, to a point the history of the Roman Empire. This is interesting. Watch the last few minutes. It is a really good summation of where we are today.

 

WALTER E. WILLIAMS – BENEFITS VS. COSTS AND COVID-19

I’ve written about this in two previous articles, Thoughts About Covid-19 Pandemic, Panic, Power, and Solutions? Or Trade Offs?

But Walter E. Williams does a better job at explaining things than most of us. Let him do what he does best.

Excerpts from the article:

“One of the first lessons in an economics class is everything has a cost.”

“That’s in stark contrast to lessons in the political arena where politicians talk about free stuff.”

“In our personal lives, decision-making involves weighing costs against benefits. Businessmen make the same calculation if they want to stay in business.”

“It’s an entirely different story for politicians running the government where any benefit, however minuscule, is often deemed to be worth any cost, however large.”

“Related to decision-making is the issue of being overly safe versus not safe enough. Sometimes, being as safe as one can be is worthless. A minor example: How many of us before driving our cars inspect the hydraulic brake system for damage?”

“We’d be safer if we did, but most of us just assume everything is OK and get into our car and drive away. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration estimates that 40,000 Americans lose their lives each year because of highway fatalities. Virtually all those lives could be saved with a mandated 5 mph speed limit. Fortunately, we consider costs and rightfully conclude that saving those 40,000 lives aren’t worth the costs and inconvenience of a 5 mph mandate.”

“With the costs and benefits in mind, we might examine our government’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The first thing to keep in mind about any crisis, be it war, natural disasters or pandemics, is we should keep markets open and private incentives strong. Markets solve problems because they provide the right incentives to use resources effectively. Federal, state and local governments have ordered an unprecedented and disastrous shutdown of much of the U.S. economy in an effort to slow the spread of the coronavirus.”

“There’s a strictly health-related downside to the shutdown of the U.S. economy ignored by our leadership that has been argued by epidemiologist Dr. Knut Wittkowski, formerly the head of the Department of Biostatistics, Epidemiology, and Research Design at Rockefeller University in New York City.”

“Wittkowski argues that the lockdown prolongs the development of the “herd immunity,” which is our only weapon in “exterminating” the novel coronavirus — outside of a vaccine that’s going to optimistically take 18 months or more to produce. He says we should focus on shielding the elderly and people with comorbidities while allowing the young and healthy to associate with one another in order to build up immunities.”

“Wittkowski says, “So, it’s very important to keep the schools open and kids mingling to spread the virus to get herd immunity as fast as possible, and then the elderly people, who should be separated, and the nursing homes should be closed during that time, can come back and meet their children and grandchildren after about 4 weeks when the virus has been exterminated.”

“The bottom line is that costs can be concealed but not eliminated. Moreover, if people only look at the benefits from a particular course of action, they will do just about anything, because everything has a benefit. Political hustlers and demagogues love promising benefits when the costs can easily be concealed. By the way, the best time to be wrong and persist in being wrong is when the costs of being wrong are borne by others.”

“The absolute worst part of the COVID-19 pandemic, and possibly its most unrecoverable damage, is the massive power that Americans have given to their federal, state and local governments to regulate our lives in the name of protecting our health.”

“Taking back that power should be the most urgent component of our recovery efforts. It’s going to be challenging; once a politician, and his bureaucracy, gains power, he will fight tooth and nail to keep it.”

In the article it mentions Dr. Knut Wittkowski former head of The Department of Biostatistics, Epidemiology, and Research design at Rockefeller University. Here is a link to the interview Leading Scientist Claims Lockdown And Quarantine Is A “Human Catastrophe“, at collective-evolution.com. I will put up the video here.

Here is the video.

Click here if it is taken down.

This is what happens when you don’t comply with the big government narrative. YouTube Censors Viral Video Of California Doctors Criticizing “Stat-At-Home” Order, at zerohedge.com.

 

OUR FOUNDING FATHERS ARE PROUD OF SOUTH DAKOTA GOV. KRISTI NOEM

Although Never Officially Shut Down, South Dakota Governor Unveils ‘Back To Normal’ Plan, by Tristan Justice, at thefederalist.com.

 

 

Excerpt from the video:

“I also noted that my role as it relates to public safety is something I take very seriously. But ultimately it is the people themselves that are primarily responsible for their safety,” They are the ones who are entrusted expansive freedoms. They are free to exercise their rights to work, worship, and to play or to stay at home and to conduct social distancing.”

“I’ve been very clear. As Governor, I did not dictate to the people of South Dakota. I did not tell you what activities you could do which ones were officially approved of or not approved of. I didn’t begin arresting or ticketing or fining individuals for exercising their rights. Nor am I going to do that today.”

“……In South Dakota in an unprecedented situation we find ourselves in today it publicly reveals the principles that we hold so dear. It is our people that makes us great. It is not our government……Our State motto is “Under God The People Rule”. That is what our system of government is all about. The people of South Dakota are the source of the power and the legitimacy of our government. Not the media. Not the politicians. Not political parties. That’s a healthy perspective for an elected official to keep in mind…...”

“The plan I’m unveiling today puts the power of the decision making into the hands of the people where it belongs…..I want to thank you for proving the wisdom of our founders by showing that people can and should be rusted to utilize the freedoms and liberties each and every day.

The number of politicians that speak like this can be counted on one hand. This should give us hope that if we can find one who understands individual liberty and the proper role of government there has to be a few more. The good news is Governor Noem can inspire others to think like she does.

I was in awe when she said “The People of S.D. are the source of the power and the legitimacy of our government. Not the media. Not the politicians, Not political parties. That’s a healthy perspective for an elected official to keep in mind…”

This is masterful. She trusts the people with the burden of responsibility for leading themselves. It is powerful because people respond better when they have skin in the game. She also fires a not so subtle warning shot across the bow of tyrannical media, politicians and bureaucrats.

I have a great deal of respect for Gov. Noem. She is swimming against the current of progressive central planners. But she strikes me as someone who is tough enough to make it all the way upstream.

 

SATIRICAL HEADLINES

Scientists who Didn’t Predict A Single Thing Accurately For Last Two Months Confident They Know What The Weather Is Going To Be Like In 100 Years, at babylonbee.com.

“WORLD—Authorities in the scientific community who touted faulty COVID-19 models are “pretty confident” they know what the weather is going to be like in 100 years, sources confirmed Wednesday.”

“The scientists say they have settled on a climate model that confirms the earth’s average temperature will be either 1 million degrees Celsius or below freezing, give or take 1 million degrees.”

People Who Go Outside, California Prisons Release Thousands Of Felons To Make Room For Skaters, Surfers, at babylonbee.com.

“We need to free up those prison cells for the really dangerous people, like beachgoers,” said Governor Gavin Newsom at a press conference.”

Food Supply Disaster Averted As Chick-Fil-A Miraculously Feeds Entire Nation With Just 5 Chicken Sandwiches, 2 Waffle Fries, at babylonbee.com.

Newly Mustachioed Bill DeBlasio Unveils Special Red Armbands For Police Enforcing Lockdown, at babylonbee.com.

 

CARTOONS

Political Cartoons by Mike Lester

Political Cartoons by Steve Breen

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Must Reads For The Week 5/25/19

May 27, 2019

“The coordination of men’s activities through central planning or through voluntary cooperation are roads going in very different directions, the first to serfdom and poverty, the second to freedom and plenty.” – F. A. Hayek

 

ECON STUFF

So Many dollars And So Much Time Has Been Wasted On Politics, Let’s Turn Our Efforts 100% Towards Economics, by Hunter Hastings, at centerforindividualism.org. Excerpt from the article:

“So much money and energy have been poured into politics in the last years and decades. What has it achieved? Dysfunction, debt, deficits, disrespect for America and its institutions, disdain for its politicians, and division between Americans.”

“Politics is poison. It is corrosive acid persistently poured onto the faces of a prostrate and powerless citizenry. It is evil, and it corrupts all the people who practice it.”

“Our proposal is for an end to politics and a replacement with the thought processes and science of economics. We’d prefer everyone to stop thinking in political terms and start thinking in economic terms. Here are five principles to begin with.”

1)Economics is about creating value for others. Politics is the destruction of value.

2)Economics operates on empathy. Politics operates on disagreement and antagonism.

3)Economics succeeds through the natural collaboration of people. Politics succeeds by exercising power over people.

4)Production is the economic measure of success. Politics is consumption without production.

5)Prices and profits are the information signals of the free market. Politicians suppress both.

Only 52 US Companies Have Been On The fortune 500 since 1955, Thanks To The Creative Destruction That Fuels Economic Prosperity, by Mark J. Perry, at carpediemblog. This shows that if companies don’t satisfy the desires of consumers with quality and price, they will either go out of business or lose market share to competitors. And this is a good thing. Which of these fortune 500 companies, Amazon, Facebook, eBay, Home Depot, Microsoft, Google, Netflix, Office Depot and Target will not be in the top 500 in 55 years?

The Subsistence Fund Is The Heart Of Economic Growth, by Frank Shostak, at mises.org. A subsistence fund is savings. Savings is what you produce above what you consume. It doesn’t matter if you save the actual good, or sell it and save the money. Here is an excerpt from the article:

“What characterizes the modern economy is its complex structure of production that seemingly generates an endless amount, and an endless variety, of goods. It seems that the production structure has, as it were, a self-generating mechanism. Careful examination, however, shows that without a key ingredient, the entire infrastructure could not have emerged. The ingredient that makes it all possible is the subsistence fund.

Envy, Inc. by Jeff Deist, at mises.org. I am going to quote the great Thomas Sowell concerning this article: “Envy used to be considered one of the seven deadly sins, before it became one of the most admired qualities under it’s new name “Social Justice.

The Balance Of Payments Myth, by Frank Shostak, at mises.org. Excerpt from the article:

“In a market economy, each individual sells goods and services for money and uses money to buy desired goods and services. The goods and services sold by an individual could be termed “export,” while the goods and services bought could be termed “import.” The record of such monetary exchanges for any period could be labeled as the trade account balance.”

“In a free market economy, individuals’ decisions regarding the selling and the buying of goods and services i.e. export and import is made voluntarily, otherwise it would not be undertaken. The emergence of an exchange between individuals implies that they expect to benefit.”

“Whenever an individual plans to import more than he exports, the shortfall will be balanced either by running down existing savings or by borrowing. The creditor who supplies the required funds does so because he expects to profit from that.”

“The current practice of lumping individual’s trade account balances into a national trade account balance is of little relevance to businesses.”

What Is The Proper Way To Study Man? by Murray N. Rothbard, at mises.org. Excerpt from the article:

“If the proper study of mankind is man, the question immediately arises: what is the proper way to study man? In recent generations, the enormous prestige gained by physics in advancing our knowledge of the material world has led to the uncritical transfer of the methods appropriate in the natural sciences to the study of actions of men………… the differences between the nature of human action and the behavior of unmotivated physical objects require different methodologies of scientific study.

…..the laws of human action (economics and, more widely, “praxeology”) cannot be “tested” by reference to statistical or historical “data.” In the behavior of physical objects, science begins by empirical observation of constant relations, and then frames tentative hypotheses of explanatory laws, these hypotheses being always subject to testing and revision by referring their deduced consequents to controlled experiments, where all but the relevant, isolated factors are held constant. This is the “scientific method” of physics. But in the study of human action, as Mises shows, the reverse is true; here, we begin by knowing the causal laws: by knowing the fact of human consciousness, of free will, of motivated, purposeful action of human beings in using given means for the attainment of desired ends. On the other hand, the facts of human history are not, as in physics, controllable and subject to testing; they are the complex and changing resultants of the interplay of human motives and actions, impinging on the natural environment and on each other. The laws of economic science, therefore, can only be constructed by starting with apodictically known axioms and deducing from them a body of necessarily true laws.

Hazlitt Predicted Economics In Two Lessons, by Jorge Besada, at mises.org. Excerpt from the article:

“Mr. Quiggin’s recent book, Economics in Two Lessons, is the latest intellectual salvo fired by a member of the mainstream economics establishment towards the legendary unabashed defenders of capitalism like Ludwig von Mises, 1974 Nobel Laureate in Economics F.A. Hayek, and of course, Henry Hazlitt himself, who von Mises once referred to as “our leader…the economic conscience of our country and of our nation.” Yet in this book he simply reveals himself to be exactly as Hazlitt predicted, as part of the usual crop of “men regarded today as brilliant economists, who deprecate saving and recommend squandering on a national scale as a way of economic salvation” and whose “ ideas which now pass for brilliant innovations and advances are in fact mere revivals of ancient errors, and a further proof of the dictum that those who are ignorant of the past are condemned to repeat it.”

 

MISCELLANEOUS STUFF

There Are A Record 1,7 Million More Job Openings Than Unemployed Workers, at zerohedge.com. My favorite stat is that job openings decreased in the federal government (-15,000).   Excerpt from the article:  “According to the BLS, the number of job openings increased for total private (+363,000) and was little changed for government. Job openings increased in a number of industries, with the largest increases in transportation, warehousing, and utilities (+87,000), construction (+73,000), and real estate and rental and leasing (+57,000). Job openings decreased in federal government (-15,000).”

Mike ‘Dirty Jobs’ Rowe Routs America’s School System: “We’re Obsessed With Credentialing, Not Education, at zerohedge.com. The great Thomas Sowell considers many college degrees to be nothing more than, “Credentialed Ignorance.”

“Dystopian Approach”: SEC Blesses  Master Card’s Idea Of Cutting Off Customers With Right-Wing Views, at zerohedge.com.  Excerpt from the article:

“Mastercard is not the only holder of purse-strings that is mulling the selective banning of individuals from their services ad funds.”

“Patreon and PayPal have previously barred individuals from receiving payments using their platforms, due to their extreme views.”

“But unlike crowdfunding platforms, being cut off from one of the leading American multinational financial services corporations will, most likely, have a much greater impact on the financial stability of an individual of a group, especially after the US Securities and Exchange Commission reportedly blessed MasterCard’s undertaking.”

“By doing this, Swann believes the government granted “big corporations the ability to control what voices are heard.”

“The issue with such an approach, the investigative journalist argues, would lead to a wider crackdown on financial payments to anyone who the government would see as unfavorable.”

California Mulls Tax Breaks For Movie Studios That Leave Strict Pro-Life States, at zerohedge.com. The Roe decision in 1973 was a solution in search of a problem. Back then their wasn’t conflict because each state had it’s own abortion law, and if you didn’t like it, you could try to change the law inside that particular state or you could vote with you feet and move. The only thing the one size fits all Roe decision has done is create more conflict where it didn’t exist.

Socialists Set To Take-Over California Democratic Party, at targetliberty.com. The incremental movement toward socialist central planning in California is almost complete. Lets not let this disease spread any farther in our country than it already has.

Body Cam Video They Don’t Want You To See: Arizona Cop Takes Down Knife-Wielding Jihadist, at zerohedge.com. Have you seen this one in the main stream media? I didn’t think so. It doesn’t fit the media narrative.

Children At Philadelphia Muslim Society Say They Will: Chop Off Heads” For Allah, at zerohedge.com. Have you seen this one in the MSM? If it doesn’t fit, you must ignore it.

 

GUN CONTROL?

With Gun Ban Not Working, Politicians In Britain Want To Ban Knives Nationwide, at zerohedge.com. Maybe they should pass a law banning murder! Oh! They already have that law.

Underwear-Clad Florida Man Tries To Break Into Elderly Woman’s Car, then Meets Her Baseball Bat: by Nate Madden, at theblaze.com. The perpetrator wants assault bats banned.

Operation Choke-Point 2.0? Gun Control Advocates Urge Banks To Refuse Service To Gun Companies, at zerohedge.com. Gun grabbers will use every angle to undermine the Second Amendment.

Armed Women Calls 911, Locks Herself In Closet After Intruder Kicks Down Back Door. He Shouldn’t have Taken Another Step, by Dave Urbanski, at theblaze.com. She did everything possible to not have to shoot this guy.

FEEL GOOD VIDEO OF THE DAY: Crazy Man Attempts To Attack A Lady But She Happened To Have A Gun And Shot Him, at theburningplatform.com. The guy thought he had an easy mark. OOPS

Armed Man Kicks Down Front Door Of House In Broad Daylight. Armed Homeowner Makes Intruder Pay Ultimate Price. by Dave Urbanski, at theblaze.com. Actions have consequences.

Meanwhile In Chicago: Armed Man Pulls Out His Handgun To Ward Off Two Younger Men Who Appear To Attack Him, at theburningplatform.com. He didn’t shoot either of these attackers. Do you think a cop would have shot both of them?

Store Clerk Fired After Pulling Gun In Self-Defense Against Hatchet-Wielding Robber, by Caleb Howe, at theblaze.com. This is not a satirical story from the Onion of The Babylon Bee. The clerk got fired for having a weapon.

Here is what the president of Plaid Pantry In Oak Grove said: “…the stores have “a zero tolerance for weapons and the clerk is no longer employed there. He said employees are trained to de-escalate robbery situations to avoid injury.”

I’m not kidding. He really said that. Did the president’s statement unknowingly increase the incentive for criminals to rob Plaid Pantries? What kind of individuals will now be incentivized to work for the Plaid Pantry in the future?

 

SATIRICAL HEADLINES

Long-Running Political Lecture Show ‘Saturday Night Live’ Will Shift To Comedy Next Season, at thebabylonbee.com.

Trump Announces More Aid For Farmers Hurt By Tariffs Passed To Raise Money For Aid Used For Farmers Hurt By Previous Tariffs, at thebabylonbee.com.

Gay Man Miraculously Turned Straight By Single Bite Of Chick-Fil-A, at thebabylonbee.com.

Evangelical Mistaken For Mormon After Treating Everyone With Kindness And Respect, at thebabylonbee.com.

Elizabeth Warren Surprises Grads By Announcing She Will Sharply Increase Their Taxes To Pay For Their Student Loans, at babylonbee.com.

In Move To Ban Charter Schools, Bernie Sanders Introduces ‘No Child Left Ahead Act’, at thebabylonbee.com.

 

CARTOONS

 

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Must Reads For The Week 11/10/18

November 11, 2018

DEMOCRAT INTERFERENCE IN FLORIDA ELECTION VOTE COUNT

JOSEPH STALIN – “IT’S NOT THE PEOPLE WHO VOTE THAT COUNT, IT’S THE PEOPLE WHO COUNT THE VOTES.”

Russian influence vs. Democrat Party corruption. What is happening in Florida is not an attempt to “influence” how people will vote. It is interference after the votes have been cast. Politicians, main stream media, political action committees, you and me try to influence people’s votes. It is part of the political process. Tampering with votes after the fact is illegal.

Trump Warns: Dems Are Sending “Their Best election-Stealing Lawyer” To Florida, at zerohedge.com. Haven’t we seen this movie before? It’s Broward and Palm Beach counties attempted fraud in Bush v Gore all over again.

Broward County Is An Embarrassment, And The Potential For A Stolen Florida Election Is Real, by Ben Demenech, at thefederalist.com. Bureaucratic incompetence? Or bureaucratic corruption?

In Palm Beach County, Democrats Argue To Count Votes Case By Non-Citizens, by D.D. McAllister, at thefederalist.com. If you follow the rule of law, this is simple. Someone who is not a citizen, is not allowed to vote. If they do vote, their vote doesn’t count.

Florida Vote Scandal Coverage Shows Media-Democrat Complicity, Again, by Mollie Hemmingway, at thefederalist.com. Shocker! The main stream media has picked sides on this issue.

OTHER ELECTION THOUGHTS

The Midterm Election Showed Why We Need More States, by Tho Bishop, at mises.org. Excerpt from the article: “….there is one election night conclusion we can be certain about: America needs more states……While the idea may seem racical, smaller political units are the best way of addressing some of the growing cultural divides that thee media loves to talk about.”

“Of course none of these structural changes will help solve the issues America faces without an ideological change in favor of free markets and individual liberty. Still….it is worthwhile to question the physical size of political units in the US.

Three Reasons Why Elections Don’t Matter, at theburningplatform.com. This is a great summation of what happened in the mid-term election. The three reasons listed why elections don’t matter are: 1) The swamp will never be drained. 2) The inflating debt bubble. 3) Technocracy rises: Big brother cometh.  Although I agree the three reasons are difficult obstacles to overcome, elections do matter. But as the article above states: “Nothing will help solve the issues America faces without an ideological change in favor of free markets and individual liberty.” It takes time to change individuals minds about how the world really works. Especially when the the education system, the main stream media, and our cultural and Hollywood elites have been pushing socialist central planning and political correctness for decades. Change will come one of two ways. Ballots or bullets. Change by ballots has a much lower cost but it takes time. Remember where we were in 2009? Nobody thought then that we would be where we are today. And it has been just 10 years later. Change happens one step at a time.

OTHER STUFF

White House Pulls CNN’s Jim Acosta’s Media Credentials, at zerohedge.com. Jim Acosta acts like the little kid in the store that won’t mind his mother. The little kid needs a swift kick in the rear end.

Three Reasons Parents Shouldn’t Force Kids To Share Their Toys, by Emma Elliot Freire, at fee.org. This is an interesting article. Here is an excerpt: “Giving your child a sibling is the best way to teach them about sharing. Your kid learns quickly that the world does not revolve around them, and it requires no extra pedagogical effort on your part.

Seven Top Takeaways From Grassley’s Report On Brett Kavanaugh’s Accusers, by Margot Cleveland, at thefederalist.com. This was all politics. Meaning none of it was true.

Mother Of Three Fires Her Gun After Crook Kicks Down Her Door: “I Would’ve Killed Him If I Had To”, at theblaze.com. A defensive use of a firearm by a mother protecting her three kids.

Colorado Man Receives Major Settlement After Police Beat, Pepper Spray, and Repeatedly Tase Him, at theblaze.com. The cops thought he was drunk. But he was having a diabetic seizure.

Major Math Error Puts Widely Cited Global Warming Study On Ice, at zerohedge.com. Was it a accidental math error that wasn’t caught before the study was published? Or was the math error purposeful to make the study show what researchers wanted?

Nine Years Into Common Core, Test Scores Are Down, indoctrination Up, by Joy Pullmann, at thefederalist.com. The sad thing about this is that it will take a lot of effort by parents to get rid of Common Core. Why? Because teaching our kids is purely political and has been for over 50 years.

SATIRICAL HEADLINES

Florida Recount Finally Wraps Up, Al Gore Declared President, at babylonbee.com.

Nation Torn Apart By Routine Election Starting To Wonder If Government May Be Too Powerful, at babylonbee.com.

Jim Acosta Late For Press conference Again After Staring At Self In Mirror For Three Hours, at babylonbee.com.

Nazis Clarify They’re Only Calling For ‘Democratic Nazism’, at babylonbee.com

 

CARTOONS

Political Cartoons by Bob Gorrell

 

Political Cartoons by Mike Lester

Must Reads For The Week 9/22/18

September 22, 2018

Landmark Victory For Institute For Justice, Which deserves Nobel Peace Prize For Its Ongoing Legal Efforts Advancing Human Rights, by Mark J. Perry, at carpediemblog. This is a victory for the individual in his fight against Government’s illegal use of force. Civil asset forfeiture laws are violations of our individual rights as spelled out in Fourth, Fifth, Sixth and Fourteenth Amendments of the Constitution. The Institute for Justice does great work helping individuals fight against the tyranny of government. We should all celebrate this victory because it is not just a victory for this particular individual. It is a victory for all individuals.

Gov. Brown Signs Law To Limit Plastic Straws In Full-Service Restaurants, at sacramento.cbslocal.com. Starting next year it will be illegal for full service restaurants to give a customer a plastic straw unless the customer asks for one. Do you think if crazy environmentalists thought that the use of straws would be good for the environment, that California would probably have a law making it illegal to drink in a restaurant without a straw?

Private Jet Traffic Increased 30 Percent During California Climate Conference, at targetliberty.com. Do as I say. Not as I do. How much CO2 (aka plant food) are these virtue signalling phonies pumping into the atmosphere by flying private jets instead of flying United with the “rabble”.

The eTron Con, at ericpetersautos.com. Car companies worship at the altar of electric vehicles. Will these companies ultimately be sacrificed on this EV altar? Great article about the EV scam and its cost.

Fraternity Holds Charity Fundraiser, Gets Accused Of ‘Cultural Appropriation’, by Grace Gottshling, at campusreform.org. Phi Gamma Delta fraternity wore grass skirts during a charitable fund-raiser. The Interfraternity Community, released a statement saying Phi Gamma Delta was guilty of cultural appropriation. Here is the statement: “Their actions represent clear examples of cultural appropriation which does not align with the values of the Interfraternity Community, or Washington State University……The Interfraternity Council condemns these and all acts of cultural appropriation regardless of the intention behind them.”  So anyone who drinks beer can be accused of appropriating German culture? Why do we listen to such nonsense?

“Terrifying”: New Documents Reveal Secret Govt Rules For Spying On US Journalists, at zerohedge.com. The main stream media doesn’t cover the fact that the FBI used The FISA court to surveil Trump because they want to get rid of him by any means necessary. What they don’t understand is the means used by government insiders to get Trump can also be used against them. Don’t these all knowing journalists know that Obama’s former Attorney General Eric Holder spelled out to the FBI in a memo that the AG will sign off on FISA applications to surveil “known media entities or known members of the media.” The MSM doesn’t understand that their ‘freedom of the press’, guaranteed in the constitution, only exists if Government allows it to exist. By not covering FBI and DOJ corruption related to Trump they are allowing the hangman to use a noose that could eventually be put around their neck.

40% Of Venezuela Stores Go Bust After 3,000% Minimum Wage Hike, at zerohedge.com. Government mandates don’t happen in a vacuum. Incentives created by these policies have consequences. It doesn’t matter if the mandated minimum wage is $1000 dollars an hour if no businesses exist.

Backfire Economics: Trump’s Trade War Inflicts More ‘Collateral Damage’ and ‘Friendly Fire’ On US Firms, Consumers And Hurricane Victims, by Mark J. Perry, at carpediemblog. Here are examples of some of the consequences of Trumps trade policies and tariffs. Economic laws are always in play no matter what the intentions are of a particular Government policy.

Socialism Isn’t Even Suited For Dogs, at economicpolicyjournal.com. Because of the printing press, 2.2 pounds of dog food costs roughly three weeks salary at minimum-wage. Since people in Venezuela can’t afford to feed their dogs, they are releasing their pets (under the possibility the dogs could be caught and eaten by starving Venezuelans).

Visualizing How America Uses Its Land In 13 Illustrations, at zerohedge.com. Of the roughly 1.918 billion acres of land in the U.S.. Only 69+ million acres are urban. We are not running out of land.

SATIRICAL HEADLINES

CNN Retracts Completely Factual Story, Admits It Did Not Reflect Their Editorial Standards, at babylonbee.com.

Socialist Leaders Clarify: “We Only Want Socialism For Everyone Else‘, at babylonbee.com.

World History Professor Opens Class With Trigger Warning For Socialists Students, at babylonbee.com.

Is Football Bad For The NFL? at theonion.com.

CARTOONS

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Must Reads For The Week 9/1/18

September 3, 2018

THE COLLEGE SCAM

What You Really Pay For In College: Credentials, Not Education, by Doug French at mises.org. Traditionally, getting a high priced piece of paper, aka a college degree, was important to employers. It showed “that students have the discipline to suffer through the boredom to conform to what society expects and what employers want.” The changing economy and the high cost of college education is changing this traditional way of looking at employees.

11 Rage-Inducing Facts About America’s Wildly Out-Of Control Student Loan Debt Bubble, at zerohedge.co. Here are three important points from the article.

#1 The student loan debt bubble has now grown to 1.4 trillion dollars.

#2 In 2007, the total amount of student loan debt in the U.S. was just 545 billion dollars.

#9 From 2007 through 2017. “college tuition costs jumped 63 percent, school housing surged 51 percent and the price of textbooks by 88 percent.”

The increase of borrowed money being used for college education is the reason the costs of college education has increased so much. It is a bubble.

No College, No Problem: Silicon Valley’s Student Loan Solution, at zerohedge.com. Many companies are beginning to rethink the importance of a college education as a requirement for employment. This is a good trend.

OTHER STUFF

Boy Punished For Calling His Teacher Ma’am’And A Mother Was Investigated For Letting Her 8 Year-Old Walk The Dog, by Micheal Snyder, at lewrockwell.com. This is not satire from The Onion. It is just two examples of public school education insanity.

Crushing The “Blame Climate Change From Wildfires” Narrative In 1 Simple Chart, at zerohedge.com. More acreage was burned in the early 20th century than today and it is not even close.

Immigrants and Disease, at theburnigplatform.com. By law immigrants and refugees are mandated to go through medical screening. If they don’t pass, they are not allowed to enter. But it is impossible to medically screen illegal immigrants.

The Looming Threat of Video Game Regulation, by Matthew McCaffrey, at mises.org.  Here are the two reasons from the article that regulation of all industries takes place. “1) Politicians and regulators trying to control and manage the emerging industry. 2) Industry leaders using regulation to their own advantage and to the detriment of competitors.”

Facebook Engineer’s Stunning admission” “We Tear Down Posters Welcoming Trump Supporters”, at zerohedge.com. This is an admission of what we already knew. This is not an infringement on free speech because these are private companies. Free speech shall not be infringed by Congress as stated in the First Amendment. The answer is for an entrepreneur to supply a Facebook like platform that is truly uncensored.

The Energy Race Is On (Improving Fossil Fuels vs. Political Favorites), by Greg Rhemke at masterresource.org. This is really good. It is a must read for a reason.

Chart Of The Day: Oil Output In Texas vs. Venezuela, 1994-2018, by Mark J. Perry, at carpediemblog. This is really a contrast between socialism and capitalism.

SATIRICAL HEADLINES

Socialists Gather On Labor Day To Protest Concept Of Labor, at babylonbee.com.

Liberal Activist Explains Notion Of Tolerance To Man She Just Called A “Worthless [Expletive]’, at babylonbee.com.

Ocasio-Cortez Praises Venezuela For Making Everyone A Millionaire Through Hyperinflation, at babylonbee.com.

Ocasio-Cortez Severely Burned After Accidentally Touching Book On Basic Economics, at babylonbee.com.

CARTOONS

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Must Reads For The Week 2/17/18

February 19, 2018

OPEC Future In Doubt As US Production, Fig Count Surge, at zerohedge.com. America’s shale revolution has changed the world oil market. OPEC wants to cut production to “balance the market”. What “balancing the market” means to OPEC is increased prices. Unfortunately for OPEC American shale is balancing the market. When the price of oil rises, because of OPEC’s production cuts, it now becomes profitable for frackers to produce more oil which ultimately lowers the price.

Inconvenient Energy Fact Of The Day, by Mark J. Perry, at carpediemblog. Solar and wind are going to provide a small percentage of of the worlds energy for the foreseeable future. So why are we wasting tax dollars to subsidize these non productive energy sources? It makes no sense outside of the political arena.

The Boston Globe Editorial Board Unloads On The ‘Pipeline Absolutism’ Of Environmentalists, by Mark J. Perry, at carpediemblog.com. Once again environmentalists activities are increasing the cost of energy. Excerpt from the article: “Why is LNG coming 4,500 miles for Boston from the Russian Arctic when the US is the world’s No.1 natural gas producer? The simple answer to the question is a lack of natural gas pipelines in New England due to the “pipeline absolutism” of anti-fossil fuel environmentalists who have blocked all new pipeline expansions…

SpaceX CEO Elon Musk Updates Mars Colonization Plans, by Jason Davis, at planetary.org. I’m going to throw a wrench in the spokes of Elon’s plan. How will this colony be supplied with food, water, oxygen, and other supplies to sustain life on Mars? Since there are no Walmarts on Mars, these life sustaining supplies will have to be continually transported from Earth to Mars. Is this logistical nightmare even possible? And what would the cost be (probably to tax payers) if it was possible?

Why Don’t Schools Use The Most Effective Teaching Methods? By Joy Pullmann, at thefederalist.com. The simple answer is because our educational system is essentially a monopoly. Excerpt from the article: “ …and monopolies create very powerful special interests whose sole purpose is to protect those interests. And they undermine the public’s interests using the public’s money. In short, to get U.S. public schools to actively care about better instruction, what we need is some massive trust-busting.”

Loan Shark Nation: Forcing Our Kids To Choose Between Student Loans and Everything Else, at zerohedge.com. The result of Government taking over the student loan business is the cost of college has increased dramatically. Forcing our kids into debt serfdom.

How To Kill 300,000 Americans With Opioids, by Trey Goff, at mises.org. This is a great article explaining the unintended consequences of government intervention.

FBI Admits “Protocols Were Not Followed” Before Florida Massacre, at zerohedge.com. This isn’t the first time the FBI missed the warning signs of mass shooters and terrorists. But here are few points. 1) It is easier to connect the dots after the fact than it is before the fact. 2) I didn’t think we are allowed to profile, are we? 3) I think we all agree it is a good idea to keep guns out of the hands of people with mental problems.

CIA Argues The Public Can’t See Classified Information It Has Already Leaked To Favored Reporters, at zerohedge.com. Our “public servants” are really self servants.

The Media Stopped Reporting The Russia Collusion Story Because They Helped Create It, by Lee Smith, at thefederalist.com. Excerpt from the article: “But the first vehicles of the Russiagate campaign were not bloggers or recent J-school grads lacking wisdom or guidance to wave off a piece of patent nonsense. They were journalists at the top of their profession—editors-in-chief, columnists, specialists in precisely the subjects that the dossier alleges to treat: foreign policy and national security. They didn’t get fooled. They volunteered their reputations to perpetrate a hoax on the American public.

 

CARTOONS

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Must Reads For The Week 12/16/17

December 17, 2017

Pentagon To Undergo First Ever Audit After Decades Of Sloppy Accounting And Missing Trillions, at zerohedge.com. Trying to make government agencies more efficient is a fool’s errand. Government agencies have no incentives to be efficient. If you want to cut spending by making bureaucracies more efficient you have put the cart before the horse. The only way to constrain spending is to cut their budget. Cutting their budget by say 25% would reveal what is and is not important to the Pentagon. They will cut spending on what is least important. If you cut their budget another 10%, the next wasteful marginal activities will be revealed. The Pentagon can’t spend what it doesn’t have.

Net Neutrality And The Problem With “Experts“, by Ryan McMaken, at mises.org. The term “Net Neutrality” sounds just as good as “The Affordable Care Act”. No one could be against these policies could they? Progressives are great at making up clever names for their regulations. Unfortunately the results of these regulations are the direct opposite of their names. Net Neutrality is about individuals in government (the deep state) wanting to control the internet. The insiders knew they couldn’t get their regulation passed legislatively, so they used the FCC to implement the policies. If you are for “Net Neutrality” I have one question for you. If the internet, with all its complexity, came to exist today without government regulations, will it continue its growth under government regulations?

Here is a quote from George Gilder: “Socialist and totalitarian Governments are doomed to support the past. Because creativity is unpredictable, it is also uncontrollable. If the politicians want to have central planning and command, they cannot have dynamism and life. A managed economy is almost by definition a barren one.

Harvard Business School Professor: Half Of US Colleges Will Be Bankrupt In 10 to 15 years, by Abigail Hess, at cnbc.com. I have said for years that we can cut the cost of educating high school and college students through online education. This is an example of the creative destruction of the market. Colleges will try to protect their monopoly position by lobbying government to decertify online education and use taxpayer money to prop up their failing business model. Will the market (decisions made by individuals) win, or will individuals in government intervene?

Germany Ends Tesla Model S Subsidies In Massive Blow To Company’s Government Funded Business Plan, at zerohedge.com. Elon Musk is a scam artist. He has become wealthy by convincing individuals in government to give his company tax payer dollars directly and through subsidies for buyers of his product. Under normal market conditions consumers wouldn’t be as ‘charitable’ with their own money. Electric cars may be the cars of the future. That future could come to exist incrementally as the unsubsidized cost of electric cars becomes less than the cost of gas-powered cars. But the cost isn’t the only factor. The electric car must also be a better product according to the desires of consumers. And each consumers desires are subjective, with cost being just one factor.

Ban The Bike! How Cities Made A Huge Mistake In Promoting Cycling, by Lawrence Solomon, at businessfinancialpost.com. Here is another example of government central planning creating economic inefficiency. Using scarce resources for non productive activities is what government does best. Free markets (what results when people are allowed to produce, exchange, consume and save what they want according to they subjectively value) channel scarce resources to their most productive uses. This is why bike advocacy groups spend their time and money lobbying government to get what they want, because markets would constrain their plans.

John Cochrane On Surge Pricing, Economic Freedom And The Sad Paradox Of Free Markets…. by Mark J. Perry, at carpediemblog. Raising the price of tolls during rush hour is a free market solution (trade-off) to traffic congestion during rush hour. Toll road I-66, in the Virginia suburb of D.C., has increased tolls during rush hour to relieve congestion. Of course everyone is complaining. Which means politicians are trying to step in and get these ‘unfair’ prices reduced. People don’t understand how markets work. But they seem to believe that politicians using government power can conger up a solution to an economic ‘problem’. The laws of economics are still in play even though government tries to wish them out of existence. The reality is there is more demand for road space during rush hour than what exist to handle this demand. During normal times of the day there is less demand for this same road space. We could call it an over-supply of road space. One ‘solution’ would be to supply enough road space to handle rush hour demand. But at what cost? The new supply of road space would be a waste of scarce resources at all other times except rush hour. Raising tolls during rush hour is not a solution as much as it is a trade-off. The scarce resource of road space can be rationed through price increases. The increased price of the toll allows individuals to make the trade-off between purchasing higher priced road space now, or lower priced road space at some other time.

Here is an excerpt from the article: “It does not occur to anyone that you’re really not paying tolls to the government. You are paying your fellow drivers to stay home, carpool, come later, so that they will get out of your way and let you sail to work.”

“The reaction to Uber surge pricing is a similar test. Economists love it. You mean rather than sit in the rain and wait, I can pay more, compensate someone else for waiting, encourage a driver to skip dinner, and take me where I want to go, now? I’m in. Or, I can save some money and to later. Everyone else hates it. and gets cities to ban it. And we to back to waiting.”

“The fundamental reason so many markets are not free, and so dysfunctional, is that the voters of our democracy don’t really want freedom. Freedom will come when we want it, when we insist on it, when the average voter sees a free market solution rather than endless controls as the answer to real world problems. The sad paradox of free markets is that free markets don’t need people to understand them to work. But democracy does require voters to understand how things work.

Is The Oil Glut Set To Return? at zerohedge.com. Simple supply and demand. The American fracking industry is what is keeping the price of oil from increasing. OPEC’s attempt to increase oil prices by constricting what they will supply won’t work. As soon as the price increases, because of their production cuts, it becomes profitable for American fracking to increase production. This in turn drives the price back down. The only reason oil is staying around $50 a barrel is because the price rose to an average of $100 a barrel from 2008 to 2014. This price made it profitable to start fracking. During this time period the fracking industry found more cost efficient ways to extract the oil. Today they can pump oil profitably at prices above $40. Free market prices work.

Chicken Wing Spot Prices Collapse 30% As NFL Protests Take Their Toll, at zerohedge.com. Not only are fewer people going to NFL games. Fewer people are going to wing restaurants to watch NFL games. Politicizing the NFL has economic consequences.

Is Free Trade A Problem If Some People Use Their Greater Freedom To Eat More Than Intellectuals Think Wise? by Don Boudreaux, at cafehayek.com. Free trade increases the number of choices for consumers. This is a good thing, unless you are a central planner. Central planners don’t like free trade if the choices people make don’t coincide with what the planners think is wise.

NRA-Republican Backed Bill Makes It Easier For Feds To Disarm Citizens, by Tho Bishop, at mises.org. Excerpt from the article: “While Republicans and supporters of the NRA may not fear the Trump Administration coming after their guns, it is obviously reckless to grant additional power and resources to future administrative states that may be quite hostile to the right to gun ownership. To put it simply, there is never a good reason to give Federal agencies the power the revoke an individual’s ability to lawfully purchase a weapon without due process.”

Can We Be Honest About Women? by D.C. McAllister, at thefederalist.com. With all the allegations of sexual harassment, maybe we need to step back and take a look at the reality of human nature.

CARTOONS, from therightreason.net.

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Must Reads For The Week 11/25/17

November 25, 2017

The Public Are All Alone: Understanding How The Enemy Of Your Enemy Is Not Your Friend, at zerohedge.com. Big government insiders in both parties, along with the mainstream media, the Hollywood elite, and the education establishment are the enemies of individual liberty. These people are no longer hiding the fact that they want to use the force of big government to centrally plan your life and my life. The election of Trump was a push back against the establishment. Even though Trump is not a small government guy, he is not a part of the establishment. The insiders in the establishment don’t want an outsider in their club. Being an outsider he doesn’t know that Republicans are supposed to surrender their position after any criticism by insiders (even his own parties insiders). This is why Trump is driving the establishment out of their minds. He doesn’t play the role like establishment Republicans. He doesn’t concede an inch when attacked by the establishment. He doubles down. He gives them a taste of their own medicine. Trumps presidency will be a success if all it does is open all of the outsiders eyes to the reality of the insiders game. I think outsiders are beginning to see this because of how insane the insiders react to everything Trump says or does. Defeating the establishment, aka draining the swamp, takes someone who doesn’t care what the establishment thinks. Insiders always care. Trump doesn’t!

Trumps Constructive Chaos, at victorhanson.com. Excerpt from the article: “Polls, to the extent they retain any credibility, are ambiguous about Trump’s chaotic leadership style. They show that the public is in agreement with Trump on most of these hot button issues, while not being especially fond of Trump himself—perhaps in the manner that patients may fear their oncologists but ultimately appreciate their treatments for metastasizing cancers.”

“So is Trump creating chaos, or simply cleaning up the political and cultural messes of the past decade—or both? The answer is complex. To achieve perceived noble ends, the Obama administration often used dubious means, mostly through executive orders and by deceiving the public about Obamacare, illegal immigration, and the Iran deal. Now, Trump is using Obama’s own tools to reverse what Obama wrought.”

“The Obama presidency was atypical in many ways—even when compared to other Democratic administrations, such as Bill Clinton’s. Obama tried to move the country hard to the left and, in the process, radicalized and then eroded the Democratic Party at the local, state, and federal levels. And with the loss of a once solidly Democratic Congress, Obama was reduced to running the government by fiat and edict rather than through legislative compromise and cooperation.”

“The national debt doubled to $20 trillion. The economy stagnated. Labor non-participation rates soared. Near zero interest rates wiped out the purchasing power of middle-class savers. Scandals at the IRS, the GSA, and the VA abounded; the Secret Service, the FBI, and the Justice Department were all politicized. The country divided further along racial and ethnic lines.”

“……To address these challenges, Trump could have tried carefully to patch things up in a makeshift and incremental fashion. Or he could have found such ad hoc mending largely a waste of time, and instead found a better solution in slashing and burning the mess that was left, in order to create new policies from scratch. Trump chose the latter option—and predictably, as the old order declined chaos has followed ever since.”

The Demise Of Dissent: Why The Web Is Becoming Homogenized, by Charles Hugh Smith, at oftwominds.com. Excerpt from the article: “We’ve all heard that the problem with the web is fake news, i.e. unsubstantiated or erroneous content that’s designed to mislead or sow confusion. The problem isn’t just fake news – it’s the homogenization of the web, that is, the elimination of marginalization of independent voices of skepticism and dissent…..In other words, we’ll be left with officially generated and sanctioned fake news and “approved” dissent.

This Obamacare Enrollment Assistance Group Got $200,000 In Federal Funds, Enrolled 1 Person, at zerohedge.com. This reminds me of one of my favorite quotes by Thomas Sowell: “The first rule of economics is scarcity. There is not enough of anything to satisfy all those who want it. The first lesson of politics is to disregard the first lesson of economics.” Politicians and bureaucrats forget the simple fact that healthcare is an economic good. It is controlled by the laws of economics, not the wishes of utopian central planners.

30 Million Americans Were Just Diagnosed With High Blood Pressure, Here’s Why….. at zerohedge.com. The American College of Cardiology has changed the definition of what constitutes high blood pressure. This will make big Pharma happy. More hypertension medication will be sold. Which begs the question; Which members of the American College of Cardiology invested in pharmaceutical companies before they changed the definition?

Always Ready, Always There, by Maggie Koerth Baker, at fivethirtyeight.com. This is a in-depth analysis of suicides in the military. Excerpt from the article: “When service members die by suicide, their deaths look a lot like civilian suicides – the same people, the same risk predictors, and the same means.

Are Electric Cars As Clean As They Seem?, at zerohedge.com. Here are the list of environmental problems related to electric cars that are usually over looked. Excerpt from the article: “…pollution issues from the extraction of rare earth minerals, the disposal of lithium-ion batteries, and the sourcing of the energy that powers charging stations….plague the future of the green argument for electric vehicles.”

Germany’s “Green Energy” Dream Is Falling Apart, at cfact.org. The economic realities of mandating high cost green energy and phasing out less expensive carbon based energy has political consequences. Just ask Angela Merkel.

Are You Paying For A Colossal Fraud? by Joseph Mercola, at lewrockwell.com. Is bottled water cleaner than tap water? What about the cost of tap water compared to bottled water? Excerpt from the article: “Water sold in a bottlee may be labeled distilled, spring, mineral, artesian or sparkling to name a few. More than 17 Million barrels of oil are used in the manufacture of bottled water and 50 billion water bottles are used and discarded every year. The cost of bottled water may be as much as 2,000 times more than tap water; eight glasses of water each day from your tap costs approximately 49 cents per year while the same amount in bottled water costs $1,400.”

 

CARTOONS

from therightreason.net.

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