The Intellectual Poverty Of The New Socialists, by Richard A. Epstein, at hoover.org. This is a great article. Here are some excerpts: “The New Socialists try of course to distance themselves from the glaring failures of the Old Socialists, who suffered from two incurable vices. First, they ran the economies of such places as Cuba, Venezuela, the Soviet Union, and virtually all of Eastern Europe into the ground. Second, they turned these states into one-party dictatorships governed by police brutality, forced imprisonment for political offenses, and other human rights abuses. When viewing the proposals of the New Socialists, one looks for any kind of explanation for how their proposals for the radical expansion of government control over the economy aimed at mitigating income inequality will protect both personal liberty and economic well-being.”
“The New Socialists in the United States live in a world of intellectual self-denial. They think that they can control the distribution of all the good things in life without undermining the economic and social institutions needed for the creation of that wealth in the first place. The words “competition,” “scarcity,” and “free entry” do not make it into their constricted lexicon, and their absence explains why they botch the analytical issues concerning “freedom” thoroughly…… ignoring the simple truth that scarcity means that all of us cannot have all that we want all the time……. Sadly, some individuals must grovel before their bosses to keep their jobs. But in a competitive economy, free entry allows many more individuals to quit their jobs for better opportunities, or even to be recruited away by another employer.”
“Competition leaves people with choices. But under the New Socialism, people will really discover what it means to be unfree when they only have this choice: work for the state and spend your falling wages on government-supplied goods—or starve. And to whom does the unhappy citizen turn when there is only one healthcare provider, one landlord, and one education system?”
“There is a deep intellectual confusion and moral emptiness in New Socialism. On the one hand, it denies the major advances in longevity and human flourishing that have been made in recent years by the worldwide spread of market institutions…… And New Socialism attributes to market institutions the failures that fall squarely on the regulatory programs of traditional liberals—e.g. minimum wages, rent control—that hamper economic growth and personal freedom. The New Socialism has no more chance of success than the Old Socialism. You may as well try to cure diabetes by administering extra-large doses of government-subsidized sugar.”
Education Is Not A Right, by Jose Nino, at mises.org. Education is an economic good not a right. It has to be produced by someone before it can be consumed. Economic goods are not rights. The second amendment guarantees your right to keep and bear arms from being infringed by Government. It doesn’t force someone to provide a gun for you. And it doesn’t force you to purchase a gun. Education being a right would mean that the Government couldn’t infringe on your decision to either get or not get an education. Nothing more.
Private schools and home schooling are examples of an economic good (education) being provided in the market and not by a state-run education monopoly. With today’s technology, think about the possibilities of educating people using fewer scarce resources. Scarce resources once used to build and maintain high school campuses, to maintain the education bureaucracy and to transport students to and from school could be reallocated to a more productive economic activity. The total cost of our modern “free” K-12 education system is much higher than what the cost would be if education was provided through the market process. But since our education system is a mammoth bureaucracy. What is the chance of it giving up its monopoly position? But just as fracking took down the OPEC monopoly when the price of oil rose to $140 a barrel, so to technology and entrepreneurship can make a huge dent into the State education monopoly as the price becomes more burdensome.
Victor Davis Hanson’s Analysis of ‘Trump’ vs. ‘The Resistance’
The Circus Of Resistance, by Victor Davis Hanson, at americangreatness.com. Here is an excerpt from the article: “Certainly, there are principles behind Trump’s moves, but they are not always those of the Washington establishment, whose agendas the media reflects. Trump’s initiatives are often long overdue moves that would never have happened in either a “sober and judicious” Democratic or Republican administration, however much they might have been polled and discussed.”
“Trump has mostly one principle: he was elected to pursue a conservative populist agenda without too much worry what the Washington establishment said or did, whose record on the economic front since 2008 and in foreign policy was not especially stellar. In that sense, he is far more principled in carrying out his promises than many past presidents whose stump speeches on taxes, illegal immigration, trade, educational reform and a host of other issues were either never reified or flat-out broken.”
“So far, for all the crudity and Twitter antics, we have not had a “read my lips” or “you can keep your doctor” moment in the sense of a deliberate effort to break a campaign promise.”
Is Trump Chaos An Impeachable Offense, by Victor Davis Hanson, at nationalreview.com. Excerpt from the article: “Trump is destabilizing the status quo, as he promised to do. The keepers of the status quo cry foul.”
“…for the D.C. political-media status quo it was more of a problem to tell the truth, address reality, and make the necessary difficult adjustments than to shrug, continue on, and maintain the façade of normality. Then a president came along with no prior investment in the economic and foreign-policy establishment, and apparently no desire to create any, or to worry much about his own ignorance of past conventional wisdom. And so in breakneck speed he began cancelling deals, renegotiating asymmetrical agreements, and questioning protocols of decades past — and he did so without adopting the comportment of past presidents and the advice of either the administrative state or the Washington political-media establishment. The ensuing reaction was that the Trump medicine was said to be worse than the preexisting disease, although no one could really explain why that was so.”
“So we are left only with “Trump did it,” and therefore he should be impeached, declared insane, sued, forced to resign, or face an intervention from “loyal” patriot aides because of his impulsiveness and lack of “first principles” that had given us the above status quo. Even the recent anonymous New York Times op-ed author offered no real explanations of what exactly Trump has done wrong that would warrant anti-democratic removal other than to concede that Trump has done things that most felt were long overdue. And he made changes in a rude and uncouth manner that the establishment did not like — just as a nude emperor in invisible clothes does not like it when an outsider observes that he is naked.“
THE RESISTANCE
Presented with no comment!
Pompeo Tears Into John Kerry Over Iran Meetings: “Unheard Of” Level Of Undermining White House, at zerohedge.com.
“It Was All A Set-Up” – Pentagon Whistleblower Exposes Russia Probe Reality, at zerohedge.com.
New Strzok-Page Texts Discuss FBI “Media Leak Strategy” Within Hours Of Washington Post Bombshell, at zerohedge.com.
TO WHOM DO YOU RELATE?
“Panic And Dismay”: Leaked Video Reveals Distraugh Google Execs Grappling With Hillary Clinton’s Loss, at zerohedge.com. This is priceless. The article tells you where to go in the video to see the highlights. But go to 16:45 and watch as a female exec suggests everyone get a hug. When they show the audience. Look at all the people wearing beanies with propellers on them. Like The Beany and Cecil cartoon. Seriously!
Life, Liberty & Levin: Katie Pavlich and Candace Owens, at Reasonable Insanity.
Now listen to Miss Pavlich and Miss Owens. Compare this to what you saw and heard on the Google video?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KFXVF_V_0bc
Twitter Suspends Benghazi Hero After He Excoriates Obama, at zerohedge.com. In a speech at U of Illinois, Obama said: “The republican party……..has embraced wild conspiracy theories like those surrounding Benghazi…..”
In response to Obama’s statement. Kris Paronto, who was in the middle of the fight in Benghazi, tweeted,“Benghazi is a conspiracy @BarackObama?! How bout we do this, let’s put your cowardly ass on the top of a roof with 6 of your buddies & shot rpg’s & Ak47’s at you while terrorists lob 81 mm mortars killing 2 of your buddies all the while waiting for US support that you never sent ! #scum.”
Here is the excerpt that sparked the response. Watch this video with the understanding that this is “acting Presidential”. The cadence. The tone. The pauses. The posture. The body movements. The words.
“Acting Presidential” is just one part of the establishment status quo that people voted against in 2016. “Acting presidential” is part of the propaganda process.
I’ll take Trump “acting non-presidential” every time.
SATIRICAL HEADLINES
Google Rep Issues Heartfelt Apology for Anti-Conservative Bias While Wearing ‘Kill All Republicans’ T-Shirt, at babylonbee.com.
He’s Still Got It! Funnyman Jim Carrey Jokes Americans Should ‘Say Yes To Socialism’, at babylonbee.com. What! He is serious?
Man Identifies As Woman, Immediately Receives 23% Pay Cut, at babylonbee.com.
Gay Man Bravely Comes Out As Fan Of Chick-Fil-A, at babylonbee.com.
AUSTRIAN ECONOMICS ADDICT 