Victor Davis Hanson | AUSTRIAN ECONOMICS ADDICT

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Must Reads For The Week 5/9/20

May 11, 2020

FLYNN CASE DISMISSED

No matter how much evidence comes forward proving wrong doing by the deep state starting with the FBI. I know people who will never believe individuals in government used their power to get rid of him. But the evidence can’t be denied.

These individuals in government, included President Obama, couldn’t allow Flynn to be Trumps National Security Advisor. Why? Because he was Obama’s Director Of Defense Intelligence Agency and knew too much. He also understood the intelligence community, which meant he could see what Obama’s FBI, DOJ, and CIA had done and were still doing.

When you look at the Flynn case, think of The Duke Lacrosse Rape case and Prosecutor Michael Nifong. Do you remember that Nifong was disbarred and convicted for contempt of court. Why? Prosecutorial misconduct. He failed to turn over exculpatory evidence to defense attorneys (click here). That is what the prosecutors did to Flynn. But what the FBI did is worse.

I know these articles won’t change some peoples minds about this case. But if you are interested in knowing what government is capable of doing to you, read these.

The FBI, and other individuals in the food chain, thought they would get away with this. They probably would have if they would have not gone after Flynn once they got him fired.

Never trust individuals who have the ability to use government power. Even though they are portrayed as ‘public servants’ they aren’t. They serve their self interest which is to keep and grow their power.

It blows me away that some people are just hearing about the corruption in this case. Many of us have known all of this was B.S. for three years.

ARTICLES ABOUT FLYNN CASE

Much Of The FBI’s Treatment Of Mike Flynn Was Business As Usual, And That’s The Scandal, by Scott Schakford, at reason.com. Excerpt from the article:

“Whether or not there were individuals or factions within the agency that wanted to attack Trump, what the FBI did to Flynn is normal FBI behavior for interviewing suspects. They’ve been doing it for decades. (Remember Martha Stewart?)”

“Federal statute 18 USC 1001 makes it a crime to lie to the feds on a “material” matter, even if the FBI already knows the truth, aren’t misled, and the lie doesn’t affect the investigation. This incentivizes the FBI to play these games in the first place, to try to trick suspects into a lie that could be used against them.”

The Most Complete, Concise, Least-Biased Timeline On The Flynn Case, by Sharyl Attkisson, at sharylattkisson.com. No comment needed.

Dirty Dozen: The 12 Revelations That Sunk Mueller’s Case Against Flynn, by John Solomon, at justthenews.com. No comment needed.

Your Guide To The Obama Administration Hit On Michael Flynn, by Margot Cleveland, at thefederalist.com. No comment needed.

House Intel Committee Ranking Member: FBI ‘Doctored’ Flynn’s 302 Interview Form, and It’s ‘Missing‘, at dailywire.com. A 302 is a summary of an FBI interview. The Flynn 302 is missing. Why? Probably because documents show that messages between two agents reveal them talking about ‘editing’ them to make it look like Flynn lied.

Adam Schiff: DOJ’s Decision Doesn’t Exonerate Flynn, But Incriminates AG Barr, at truepundit.com. These people accuse their enemy of the exact thing they are doing or what they did.

Chuck Todd Faceplants With Deceptive Video Of William Barr, by David Marcus, at thefederalist.com. The main stream media is more dishonest than ever. They have no credibility.

Flynn’s Attorney Sidney Powell Sums Up What Individuals With Government Power Did To General Flynn.

OTHER STUFF

Do The Media Even Exist? by Victor Davis Hanson, at amgreatness.com. Escerpt from the article:

“If we lived in a fair and just world, most of the current media would simply go away and try something else.”

“The problem is not that reporters are human and therefore sometimes err. The rub is not even that they are poorly educated or rarely write well.”

“We also expect officials to leak one-sided stories and then the media to print them without edits. These are all things baked into the media cake and the public understands, even if it does not quite accept them.”

“The crisis instead is that they are now almost always wrong, and predictably wrong because they are lazy and biased—and they deny it to the point of self-delusion. The result is that, for all practical purposes, journalists no longer exist for the general public as sources of news.”

“More than half the country now assumes that the New York Times, Washington Post, NPR, the networks, and the cable news outlets are culpable not of merely failing to tell the truth but of being incapable of telling the truth. Even if they wished to, or had the skills to report empirically and dispassionately, they simply cannot, given their investments in the progressive agenda, and its investments in them. In other words, they are owned—creatures of that agenda.”

Unbearable Truths About Our Current Political Moment, by Victor Davis Hanson, at amgreatness.com. Excerpt from the article:

“Sometimes the truth is like mythical kryptonite. It radiates power and yet promises great destruction. And so reality is to be left alone, encased in lead, and kept at bay.”

Coronavirus Response: War Between Experience And Credentials, by Victor Davis Hanson, at national review.com. Excerpt from the article:

“Credentialed Incredibility”

“One of the most depressing aspects of the coronavirus epidemic has been the failure of the credentialed class — the alphabetic transnational and federal health organizations, the university modelers, the professional associations, and their media enablers. Their collective lapse was largely due to hubris and the assumption that titles and credentials meant they had no need to accept input and criticism from those far more engaged in the physical world — they saw no need to say, “At this time, I confess we are as confused as you are.”

“In sum, the ER doctors, the nurses, and the public in general all eagerly welcomed the research of the experts. But the reverse — in which experts would listen to those with firsthand experience — was not true. The asymmetrical result is that we all have paid a terrible price in misjudging the perfidy of China; the rot within the World Health Organization; the origins, transmission, infectiousness, and lethality of the virus; and the most effective, cost-to-benefit response to the epidemic in terms of saving lives lost to the infection versus the likely even more lives lost through the response.”

“The problem was not just that we were supposed to accept expert, scientific, loud gospel on Monday, which grew muted and doubtful on Tuesday, and in near silence became impossible on Wednesday.”

“In addition, our experts learned nothing and forgot nothing, and so repeated their entire cycle of credentialed haughtiness on Thursday.”

NYTimes Wins Another Pulitzer For Falsifying History, by Kristina Skruk, at thefederalsit.com. Is anyone shocked by this headline?

Rose McGowan: The Democrats And The Media Are A ‘Cult’, at breitbart.com. Actress and MeToo activist Rose McGowan has finally figured out what a lot of us have known for a while. The battle isn’t between the D’s and the R’s. The battle is between Us and the elitists in the Democrat and Republican parties, the media, and government bureaucracies. Welcome aboard Rose! Don’t trust anyone with government sanctioned power.

The Real Climate Change Deniers, by Paul Dr Driessen, at cfact.org. Excerpt from the article:

“Fifty years ago, I helped organize Earth Day #1 programs on my college campus, calling attention to serious pollution problems that afflicted much of the USA. Over the ensuing decades, laws, regulations, and changed attitudes, practices and technologies Reduced most of that pollution, often dramatically.”

“I didn’t buy the 1970 end-is-nigh, doom-and-gloom, billions-will-die hysteria that Ron Stein and Ron Bailey recapture so deliciously, including the manmade global cooling crisis. I don’t buy it today, either – certainly not this year’s Earth Day focus on the alleged man made global warming crisis, also blamed on emissions of carbon dioxide and water vapor, the same gases that humans and animals exhale, and plants use to grow. We’re told the crisis is unprecedented, and poses existential threats to humanity and planet.”

“What I find fascinating in all this is the steadfast, often nasty determination of scientists, politicians and interest groups promoting alarmist themes – and profiting immensely from them – to reject and deny any science, history and evidence that undermines their claim that nothing like this ever happened before.”

Study Finds ‘Historic’ Drop In Math, Reading Scores Since Adoption Of Common Core, at zerohedge.com. No comment needed.

America Is Awash In Overmothered Men, by by Suzanne Venker, at washingtonexaminer.com. Excerpt from the article:

“Growing up fatherless, or with a father a son rarely sees due to divorce or workaholism (yes, that’s a thing), almost invariably stunts a boy’s growth. The end result is almost always too much mother, which means boys will absorb too much femininity and none of the masculinity they need. Ergo, he will spend years trying to figure out what it means to be a man.”

“It’s a tough subject, and thus taboo. But at some point, we will have to answer why there are so few strong, grounded, purposeful men among us when they used to be a dime a dozen. Video games have nothing to do with it.”

“We have a hard time in this country acknowledging the problems that plague our boys and men; we’re too focused on women and girls to notice. But women suffer, and currently do suffer, just as much from men’s failure to launch as do men themselves. We know this because we’re forever hearing women ask where all the good men have gone.”

SATIRICAL HEADLINES

at thebabylonbee.com.

Chinese Government Lays Off Entire Propaganda Tea As American Media Doing Their Job For Them, at babylonbee.com.

Lockdown Made Permanent To End Traffic Deaths For Good, at babylonbee.com.

‘Those Dumb Red-Staters Going To The Beach Deserve To Die,’ Man Tweets From New York Subway Train, at babylonbee.com.

‘It’s Worth It If It Saves Just One Life,’ Says Woman Who Supports Abortion On Demand, at babylonbee.com.

Chinese Officials Violently Raid Another Church But Don’t Worry That Will Never Happen Here, at babylonbee.com.

What It’s Like To believe Everything The Media Tells You,

at AwakenWithJP

I’ve seen a few of JP’s videos. They are really good. Here is one of my favorites.

If Meat Eaters Acted Like Vegans.

Categories: Must Reads For The Week
Tags: AwakenWithJP, Chuck Todd Edit Barr Video, Common Core Disaster, Coronavirus, Fake News, FBI Corruption?, Flynn 302's Doctored by FBI, Flynn Case Dismissed, Flynn Case Time Line, Flynn Set Up, NY Times 1612 Project, NYTimes, Obama Knew Flynn Case, Overmothered Men, Rose McGowan Biden, Satirical Headlines from The Babylon Bee, Schiff Slams AG Barr on Flynn Case, Trusting the Media, Victor Davis Hanson

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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

Categories: Government and Politics, Miscellaneous
Tags: Benefits Vs Costs, Cartoons, Corona Virus, Coronavirus Lockdown, Dr. Knut Wittkowski, Drs Criticizing Stay at Home Order video shut down., Founding Principles, Quarantine Is Human Catastrophe, Satirical Headlines from The Babylon Bee, South Dakota Gov Kristi Noem, Uncommon Knowledge Interview, Victor Davis Hanson, Walter E. Williams

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Must Reads For The Week 4/25/20

April 27, 2020

F. A. Hayek stated: “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.”

If we put this into a form of a question it would read something like this:

How will men’s activities be coordinated? Through the decision making of individuals? Or through the decision making of elite central planners?

The Covid 19 panic and corresponding political power grab has shined the light on this question. And how this question is answered has shaped the history of the world since the beginning. It is the fight between Liberty and Tyranny.

Our countries founding was the closest we will ever come to individual liberty. As time has passes we have incrementally moved away from individual liberty and toward tyranny of central planners.

Put another way. Should individuals make decisions for themselves and take on the responsibility and risks of those decisions. Or should “experts” make decisions for all individuals, never having to accept the risk and responsibility when the consequences of their decisions do harm to individuals.

Thomas Sowell poses the question this way: “The question is not, what decision to make? The question is; Who is to make the decision? Under what incentives and constraints? With what feedback mechanisms?

Let’s look at some articles that illustrate the age old fight between who should make decisions. Individuals or central planning “experts”.

TYRANNY BY POLITICIANS AND EXPERTS

Police Are Using Drones To Enforce Social Distancing In America’s Backyards, by Chrissy Clark, at thefederalist.com. Connecticut Tests ‘Pandemic Drone’ To Ensure People Are Social DIstancing Properly, by Sarah Taylor, at theblaze.com. Here are two articles showing the use of drones to spy on citizens. Here is an excerpt from the first article:

“Drone invasions on private property clearly violate the 4th Amendment, and no new laws exist to govern the use of surveillance technology by police departments. Police departments across the nation are taking drone usage upon themselves to violate American liberties in the name of social distancing guidelines, even on private property.”

AI Social-Distancing Enforcement Tool. “You Will Be TRACKED”, at daviddrakesplace.blogspot.com. Watch the short video showing how this technology works. It is scary.

Documents Reveal Feds Are Excited To Create A Mass Surveillance Network, at zerohedge.com. It is scary to think how technology is being used in the surveillance of citizens.

Undercover Cops Arrest 2 Women For Operating Home Beauty Businesses In Violation Of Coronavirus Lockdown Order, by Christian Britschgi, at reason.com. Social distancing “rules” are broken when cops arrest people. And even more so when these people are put in jail. I guess the thinking is; I will put you at risk of getting coronavirus to stop you from putting yourself at risk of getting or spreading coronavirus. But I think this is a show of force to try to intimidate others from breaking the arbitrary decrees of Government.

More From The “New Normal”, (In 50 ‘Darker’Headlines), at zerohedge.com. Here are a list of examples of government.

We Didn’t Flatten The Curve, We Flattened The U. S. Health Care System, by John Daniel Davidson, at thefederalist.com. We were told the lockdown was to prevent the medical system from being overwhelmed. The system hasn’t been. So lets stop the lockdown.

Business Owners Understand Why The Economy Can’t Just Be “Reopened“, by Christopher E. Baecker, at mises.org. Excerpt from the article:

“Certainly “economies can be rebuilt,” but assuming it’ll just happen reflects a level of flippant naiveté similar to that which supposes that entrepreneurs should factor government-shutdown-by-fiat into their risk calculation.”

The Destructive Effects Of The Coronavirus Relief Package, By Thorston Polliet, at mises.org. Government spending and money printing don’t solve economic problems. In fact they cause the economic problems they are trying to solve.

Here Are The Publicly Traded Companies That Quietly Got A ‘Small Business’ Bailout, at zerohedge.com. There is no shortage of people getting in line to get their hands on government (taxpayer) money.

Illinois Senate Democrats Seek Massive Federal Bailout For State, Going Far Beyond Coronavirus Impact, at zerohedge.com. States are trying to use the coronavirus to get out of their massive debt problems. Of course at taxpayers expense.

American Farms Cull Millions Of Chickens Amid Virus-Related Staff Shortages At Processing Plants, at zerohedge.com. At Least 10 Meat Packing Plants Closed In Weeks Across America Stocking Food Shortage Fears, at zerohedge.com. I wonder if the “experts” thought of this situation when they decided to shut down the economy. This could have drastic consequences.

Top Elections Lawyer: Vote-By Mail Is “The Most Massive Fraud Scheme In American History, at zerohedge.com. No comment necessary.

The Unseen Death Toll Of Covid-19 Measures, at mcclintock.house.gov. I guess the deaths caused by Governments response to Covid-19 aren’t important. We don’t understand trade offs.

Anthony Fauci: When Politics Trumps Science, by William L. Anderson, at mises.org. How did Dr. Fauci become THE Oracle when it comes to this disease? Is he the only immunologist in the country?

Excerpt from the article:

“To understand Anthony Fauci, one must understand progressive ideology, and in order to best understand progressive ideology, one needs to read Ludwig von Mises’s book Bureaucracy. The book itself is not about progressivism—indeed, Mises doesn’t mention such a philosophy in his book—but it does explain the decision-making processes that dominate bureaucracies and guide bureaucrats like Fauci. And Fauci is nothing but the consummate bureaucrat, albeit one that can speak in front of a television camera.”

“Progressives share the belief that markets, although they are good at producing useless goods, such as the too many deodorants that Bernie Sanders denounced on the campaign trail, simply cannot lead a great nation, are cumbersome, and have no mechanism by which to meet the real needs of people in society. Experts are needed to guide people in what they should have, from food to clothing to transportation to medical care, and then to lay out the plan for how people should obtain these things.”

“Mises writes that bureaucracies exist to carry out the directives of those in political power and not to engage in policymaking themselves. However, after more than a century of progressive rule the bureaucracies themselves have become the chief instruments of government power, as men like Fauci, with their anticapitalist mentalities and their single-minded approaches to life, are calling the shots. Although most people instinctively understand risks and tradeoffs, public health bureaucrats like Fauci tend to believe that the only thing that matters is the eradication of whatever is coming, no matter what the cost.”

The Real Reason Why A Harvard Professor Thinks Homeschooling Should Be Banned, at zerohedge.com. Children are being taught at home because schools are shutdown. This scares progressives like Harvard Professor Elizabeth Bartholet. Progressives want to indoctrinate your kids under the guise of teaching democratic values and social justice.

Excerpt from the article:

“Ironically, the real problem Harvard Professor Elizabeth Bartholet has with homeschooling is this: “Many homeschool because they wan to isolate their children from ideas and values central to our democracy.”

“Let me rephrase that. Homeschooled children can’t be indoctrinated five days a week, eight hours a day, by an education system that emphasizes political agendas. (And incidentally, our form of government is a constitutional republic. Shouldn’t someone from Harvard who is worried I might not have the knowledge to educate my child know something as elementary as that?)”

“Bartholet defames homeschoolers for wanting to encourage their children toward a particular belief system while touting the belief system that the school system wants to instill. So it’s okay for the public school system to do it, just not for the parents to do it.”

“While Bartholet scorns parents who indoctrinate their kids, she praises the school system for doing so. The American education system is wholly responsible for raising a generation of perpetually offended people who think they’re open-minded but who actually are only accepting of those with the same beliefs.”

“They’re creating a generation of worker bees, of dependent people who’d never dream of revolting against the status quo shown as ideal by Hollywood and the mainstream media. They’re creating adults who don’t know how to handle conflict, who don’t know how to deal with defeat, and who are regularly fearful of imaginary threats. People who are afraid of a tripod or a pop-tart chewed into the shape of a gun certainly aren’t going to be leading the next revolution.”

AOC Deletes Gleeful Tweet On Oil Industry’s Coronavirus Collapse, ‘You Absolutely Love To See It, by Douglas Ernst, at washingtimes.com. She said: “…..this is the right time for a worker-led, mass investment in green infrastructure to save our Planet.”

So lets think about this. At a time when the price of oil is the lowest it has been in decades. She wants to invest in green energy that is more expensive than what oil was at $60 dollars a barrel let alone what it is right now. So did she really major in economics?

AOC Says People Should Refuse To Work After The Economy Reopens, Breck Dumas, at theblaze.com. No comment needed.

Cuomo To Struggling Unemployed: ‘You Want To Go To Work? Go Take A Job As An Essential Worker‘, by Breck Dumas, at theblaze.com. In other words: “Your job isn’t essential you loser. I decide what is essential.” What an arrogant ass.

California Mayor Says Death May Await Shutdown Protesters Who Violate ‘Social Distancing’ Laws, by Dave Urbanski, at theblaze.com. Speaking of arrogant asses. Here is what the Mayor said:

“Make no mistake people who deliberately violate the social distancing laws, and the laws requiring that we all wear a mask will be identified, arrested, and prosecuted.”

“Do not mess with us. You will not endanger the lives of our hardworking fdmilies because of some misguided civil liberties argument.”

“The quote is: Give me Liberty or Give me Death. Being arrested and locked up in an over crowded jail just might result in granting you your wish.”

Dems Plan To Censure Michigan Lawmaker Who Said Trump’s Boosting Of Hydroxychloroqine ‘Saved My Life‘, by Andrew O’Reilly, at foxnews.com. You must tow the party line or else.

These are examples of big tech controlling the narrative. Why do these tech guys hate the free market economic system that allowed them to start small and ultimately become the captains of the tech industry?

Twitter Suspends Account Of Biotech Company Testing UV Light To Treat Coronavirus, at zerohedge.com.

Facebook Bans Civil Disobedience, Removes Posts Organizing Anti-Lockdown Protests, at zerohedge.com.

Twitter CEO Unveils Feature To “Editorialize” Trump’s Tweets As Election Looms, at zerohedge.com.

Did Mark Zucherberg Just Expose Bit-Tech’s Real Endgame? Ousting Trump, at zerohedge.com.

Bill Gates Continues To Push ‘Immunity Passports’ And Tech-Enabled Surveillance State To Combat COVIC-19, at zerohedge.com.

FIGHTING FOR LIBERTY

Wisconsinites Storm The Capital In Protest: We’re Done Staying Home, by Kylee Zempel, at thefederalist.com.

Two Hair Solon Owners In Auburn Ca. Defy Stay-At Home Orders, Both Reopen To Pay Bills, by Bridgette Bjorlo, at fox40.com.

Michigan Legislature Bucks Gov. Whitmer, Votes To Repeal Emergency Powers, by Tim Pearce, a dailywire.com.

Thousands Of Californians Flock To Open Beaches Despite Gov. Newsom’s Pleas Fo Them To Stay Home, by Lauren Fruen, at dailymail.co.uk.

Constitutionalist Sheriffs’ Won’t Enforce Coronavirus Restrictions, by Zoe Nemerever, at greenwichtime.com.

Coronavirus Crisis: Bill Of Rights Protects Our Freedom, by Victor Davis Hanson, at nationalreview.com. Excerpt from the article:

“In this current crisis, the longest if not the first complete shutdown in U.S. history, the freedoms of American democracy are being tested in ways we scarcely ever imagined. Out of nowhere little Napoleonic governors arise to enact decrees prohibiting gardening or strolling on an empty beach — decrees that seem to have little purpose other than to reflect that they can do so. Snitches volunteer to out felonious social deviants who are seen cooking in the backyard with a neighbor. A little horned-devil virus seems to be trying to do what those Russkies never could.”

“Experts with all sorts of Ph.D.s, M.D.s, and J.D.s after their names lecture from authority about what we must right now do — or else! — on the principle that they have a scientific or technocratic prerogative to impress critics of their modeling or their demand that we shut down a $22-trillion economy for “18 months,” if need be.”

“A supposedly disinterested media — found by media watchdogs to be 93 percent negative in its presidential reportage before the virus crisis — envision their coverage of the Trump demon as an endless zero-sum game in which any morsel of good news for him is instantly bad for them.”

“How fortunate, then, that in this current crisis, when one questions the logic of using a misleading denominator to ascertain viral lethality, and thus the logic of basing existential public policies on resulting case-to-fatality rates that admittedly cannot be true, one can (at least for now) keep raising skepticism without being sent to a Chinese-like reeducation camp.”

“We are witnessing the fading moments of Baby Boomer–generation authority. As it vaporizes, it still cannot fundamentally change America with sermons that we “will never go back to normal,” a synonym for “we don’t like lots of things in that bothersome Constitution.” America is currently engaged in a free-fall of angry, unfettered discussion about everything from the wearing of masks to the efficacy of hydroxychloroquine. Tempers rise; false knowledge replicates. Smack-down arguments from authority grow shrill. And, thank God, it all remains legal. Out of the mess, the acrimony can lead to light rather than endless heat.”

“Warn an American that he poses a public threat by illegally and solitarily launching his tiny boat on a nearby empty pond to fish, and he’s likely to do just that — and thereby reveal the absurdity of the functionary who issued such a tyrannical order.”

“Tell a pastor he can’t preach from his car to other car-bound parishioner and, by God, he will do just that — and will be praised by most for his measured civil disobedience.”

“Let criminals out of jail, and what’s a paranoid American city-dweller to do? Obviously head down to the gun store and get in a line for something that shoots something, now for the first time in his life bitching in extremis that gun laws he once found wonderful are far stricter than they should be.”

“Authoritarians and petty fascists, eager to issue endless edicts, molt their exoskeletons, as if under their chrysalis suits they were always caudillos, waiting to be reborn with sunglasses and epaulettes. But a free and empowered people, even in times of mortal danger, long nursed on a Bill of Rights, is hard to subjugate or shut up, even after over a month spent locked up in their homes. Thank God, we have a Constitution quite different from those of European nations, which are themselves far superior to other alternatives.”

“In these strange times, American individualism and the Bill of Rights that birthed it are still proving, for a while longer, too strong for the natural forces of fascism masquerading as “we had to destroy freedom to save it.”

SATIRICAL HEADLINES

Trump Says To Drink Lots Of Water, Media Reports He Told Everyone To Drown Themselves, at babylonbee.com.

Majority Of Americans Would Rather Risk COVID Death Than Endure Any More Skype Lectures From Celebrities, at babylonbee.com.

AOC Drops By Unemployment Office To Tell People How Lucky They Are Not To Have Oppressive Jobs, at babylonbee.com.

Pope Says Driving SUV Is An Unpardonable Sin, at babylonbee.com.

Former Clinton Adviser Calls On Biden To Withdraw Over Assault Allegations, at daviddrekesplace.blogspot.com.

CARTOONS

from theburningplatform and therightreason

Categories: Must Reads For The Week
Tags: Anthony Fauci Expert, AOC Wants green infrastructure, babylonbee, Bill Of Rights Protects Our Freedoms, Californians flock to Beaches, Cartoons from theburningplatform, Cartoons from therightreason.net, Central planning vs. Voluntary Cooperation, Coronavirus Exposing Tyrants Everywhere, Coronavirus Relief Package Destructive, Cuomo: Get an Essential Job, Experts, Facebook, Gates Immunity Passports, Harverd Prof. Wants Homeschooling Banned, Liberty vs. Tyranny, Michigan Legislature Bucks Gov. Whitmer, Police Drones Surveillance, Processing plants closing. Food Shortages, Satirical Headlines, Social-Distancing Enforcement, States Want Bailedout of Debt, Surveillance State, Twitter Bans Anti-Lockdown Protests, Victor Davis Hanson, Vote Fraud via Vote by Mail, Wisconsin Lockdown protest

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Must Reads For The Week 4/13/19

April 15, 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

Strange Paradoxes Of Our Age, by Victor Davis Hanson, at nationalreview.com. Excerpt from the article: “From Race, to environmentalism, to wealth, the gulf between ideological rhetoric and reality has rarely been wider.”

“Modern prophets often say one thing and do another. Worse, they often advocate in the abstract as a way of justifying their doing the opposite in the concrete.”

“The result is that contemporary culture abounds with the inexplicable – mostly because modern progressivism makes all sorts of race, class, and gender exceptions for politically correct felonies, an appeasement that ensures an absence of deterrence and thus even more transgressions.”

The Joys Of Socialism: Venezuelans Are Looting Corpses For Jewelry And Bones, at zerohedge.com. More examples of how moving down the road toward government central planning (socialism) produces misery.

Diocletian In Venezuela, at the burningplatform.com. What is happening in Venezuela is nothing new. The Roman empire’s decline was kicked into high gear by the implementation of big government central planning policies under emperor Diocletian. The Socialist central planning ideas embraced by Democrats, and some Republicans, are no different from the policies implemented by the Roman Empire two centuries ago or Venezuela today. Going down this road leads to the same place. Brexit and the election of Trump are examples of ‘the people’ saying “we need to take the next exit, turn around, and go back the other way.

The Betrayal Of Brexit Is A Mix Of Social Engineering And Mock Elections, at zerohedge.com. Brexit has turned into a battle of wills between our elected betters, and the “benighted masses”. Elected bureaucrats will lie, threaten, use government force and ultimately kill to keep their power. The benighted masses will win as long as they don’t give up.

The Truth About Brexit In 135 Words, at zerohedge.com. This cab driver, a member of the benighted masses, cuts through the anointed’s propaganda, and sums up Brexit for us. “They’re all liars mate. May was a Remainer. How were we going to get a good or deal when our negotiators don’t want to leave? They’ll stall until they can say it’s not what the people want no more……happened in every country that ever wanted a referendum or held one…”

Small Businesses Layoff Workers To Comply With Minimum Wage Law, at zerohedge.com. People don’t need an economics degree to understand the economic principle of supply and demand. We live the principle everyday. When the price of an economic good is increased, we buy less. The fact that we are talking about increasing the cost of labor, doesn’t change this common sense principle. Fewer employees will be employed.

Housing Starved San Francisco Shoots Down New Apartment Project Because It Would Cast Shadow On Nearby Park. Again. by Christian Britschgi, at reason.com. Increasing the cost of building apartments, via regulation, fees or delays, means less housing will be supplied. The same principle applies to housing as it does to labor in the above post.

What Went Wrong With Pensions…And Why The Whole World Should Be Worried, at zerohedge.com. Politicians have underfunded these pensions for years. There is not enough principle in these pensions, to accrue enough interest, in order to cover the benefits promised by politicians. At some point someone is going to have to give something up. It will either be the tax payers through higher taxes or retirees through decreased benefits. Politicians who try to fix this problem will be savaged by the unions and the media. While the politicians who created the problem will never be held responsible.

Thousand Of Elderly Patients Go Blind In Britain Due To Eye Surgery Rationing, by Ashe Schow, at dailywire.com. Healthcare is an economic good. Economic goods are scarce and have to be rationed through some process. Economic goods are rationed by prices in a free market, while they are rationed by bureaucrats in a centrally planned system. More healthcare is supplied in a free market than is supplied in a centrally planned system. Since the U.K. has a nationalized healthcare system, the supply of healthcare will not be enough to keep up with demand. Waiting in line is how scarce resources are rationed in a centrally planned economy.

London’s Uber, Cab Drivers Catch Yellow Vests’ Bug, Rail Against Fossil Fuel Taxes, at zerohedge.com. The climate change hoax will be paid for by the middle class. These are the people who can ill afford to pay for it. The wealthy will be ok and the poor will either be exempted from paying or will be subsidised by tax payers.

Central Banks Are Propping Up Stock Prices, by Thorsten Poleit, at mises.org. Printed money, via artificially low-interest rates, is being pumped into the stock market. This pushes stock prices higher and props them up after they have increased. Money going in to the stock market increases stock prices while money leaving the stock market decreases stock prices. It is simple supply and demand.

Outraged Jews And Supporters Stage Sit-In At Nancy Pelosi’s Office, by Lori Lowenthal Marcus, at saracarter.com. This is what happens when you push identity politics. Eventually protected groups are pitted against each other. I have never understood why Jewish people support the Democrat party since Democrat policies are anti-Israel. The failure of Democrat party leaders to criticize the anti-Semitic comments of Democrat Rep Ilhan Omar is causing many Jews to rethink their support for the Party. This exit from the Democrat party is being called Jexodus. Like Candace Owens’ Blexit movement.

Cory Booker Admits Releasing Migrants In Sanctuary Cities Would “Make Us Less Safe“, at zerohedge.com. In an unrelated story, “I Finally Agree With Cher” Trump Exposes Liberal Elites’ Virtue-Signaling Hypocrisy, at zerohedge.com. These two are agreeing with Trump even though they probably don’t realize it. Trump doubled down on the lefts criticism of him stating that he was going to release migrants to sanctuary cities. After the criticism he said: “…The Radical Left always seems to have an Open Borders, Open Arms policy – so this should make them very happy!” He was offering to give them what they wanted.

These leftists remind me of Wile E. Coyote. He always got smashed by the anvil he attempted to drop on the Road Runner. He has been doing this to the Democrats and the media for two plus years. And they haven’t figured it out yet. (watch here)

NY Democrats Block College Tuition Aid For Gold Star Families – But Approve $27 Million In Aid For Illegal Immigrants, by Sara Taylor, at theblaze.com. Since human beings act purposefully, their actions reveal what they value. Who do these democrat politicians value. Excerpt from the article: “Democrats in the new York Assembly blocked a college tuition bill that would expand aid to children in Gold Star families. The move took place Tuesday, just a week after he Assembly’s Higher Education Committee approved $27 million allocated from NY State’s tax budget to assist illegal immigrants in receiving higher education.”

School Lets You Pay Tuition By Selling 17% Of Your Future Income, at zerohedge.com. This is a free market solution to the government created problem of the high cost of a college education.

College (As We Know It) Is Broken In The USA, at zerohedge.com. The high cost of a college education is sowing the seeds of its own destruction. This high cost is providing lower cost alternatives with the ability to compete in the education market for customers. Here is the list of some possible alternatives. 1) The way students and parents pay for college is changing. 2) The methods and the places students learn are changing (and have been for a while think internet and trade schools). 3) Our culture is changing to finally accept that “traditional’ 4-year college isn’t the answer for everyone. 4) Businesses are starting to figure out that a college degree isn’t needed to be successful in their particular field. They would rather provide training for potential workers, instead of relying on a college degree.

Frankenstein Designer Kids: What You Don’t Know About Gender – Transitioning Will Blow Your Mind, at zerohedge.com. I stated this last week: What about the oath…First do no harm! This is child abuse. Young kids and teens don’t have the mental capacity to understand what transgender even means. Why do you think there are statutory rape laws and laws against pedophilia? To protect young people from predators. Are doctors now predators?

Pew Research Center’s Science Knowledge Quiz, at carpediemblog. The average score is 61%. Take this quiz if you want to build your self-esteem, because you will probably get all the answers correct. But, does being able to answer easy questions correctly build self-esteem? They should have a more difficult quiz for the people who answered all the questions correctly. Then we could find out if we deserve to feel good about our scientific bona fides.

CANDACE OWENS Opening Statement In Front Of House Judiciary Hearing Concerning On “Hate Crimes And The Rise Of White Nationalism”. (click here)

Candace Owens Slaps Down Democrats Smear Attempts At Judiciary Hearing. (click here)

After Mr. Lieu played some audio of a previous statement made by Candace Owens, he doesn’t ask her to comment. He asked two people on the panel to comment about her comments. Then a Republican congressman said he would yield his allotted time to Miss Owens if she wanted to respond. She then proceeds to hammer Mr. Lieu. As she starts, the chairman of the committee tries to accuse her of ‘referring disparagingly’ to a member of the committee. This is a ploy used by politicians in these hearings to limit the amount of time a witness can talk. But this back fires because she proceeds to hammer him.

Watch the condescending attitude shown by the facial expressions of the committee chairman. The optics of this are amazing. Lets reverse the situation. If a white Republican congress chair acted like this toward a black women who was testifying, the Dems and the press would be screaming racism.

SATIRICAL HEADLINES

Comey: ‘We Did Spy—We Just Observed And Reported Secretly Without The Subjct’s Knowledge Or Consent’, at babylonbee.com.

Ocasio-Cortez Appears On ‘The Price Is Right,’ Guesses Everything Is Free, at babylonbee.com.

Scientists Recommend Reducing The Number Of Democratic Presidential Candidates To Help Fight Climate Change, at babylonbee.com.

Progressives Officially Redefine ‘Hate Speech’ As ‘Speech We Do Not Like’, at babylonbee.com.

Hillary Clinton Sends 30,000 Emails On Mission To Investigate Black Hole, at babyonbee.com.

CARTOONS

from burningplatform.com

Categories: Must Reads For The Week
Tags: Brexit Betrayal, British Socialized Medicine, Cartoons from theburningplatform, Central Banks Prop Up Stock Market, College Education Scam, Doctors Push Transgender Agenda, Future Income Funds college education, Gold Star Tuition Aid, Illegal Immigrants Tuition Aid, Jews Leaving Democrats, Minimum Wage and Layoffs, NY Dems, Paradoxes on Race and environment, Public Pensions Underfunded, Rationing Eye Surgery, San Francisco Housing Shortage, Satirical Headlines from The Babylon Bee, Science Knowledge Quiz, Socialism, Socialist Central Planning in Venezuela, Trump Migrants To Santuary Cities, Uber and Cabs Fossil Fuel Tax, Venezuela Looting Graves, Victor Davis Hanson, Wile E. Coyote vs Road Runner

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Must Reads For The Week 2/23/19

February 25, 2019

“The coordination of mens 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

“I’m Committing Professional Suicide”: CBS Reporter Lara Logan Admits “Mostly Liberal” Journalists Are Now “Political Activists“, zerohedge.com. Lara Logan is a former CBS News 60 Minutes correspondent. In this interview she gives us her observations about her industry. Watch parts of or the entire interview for context.

Excerpt from the article: “Logan says that heavy bias has warped people’s ability to know what’s really true.”

“When you turn on your computer, or you walk past the TV, or you see a newspaper headline in the grocery store it they’re all saying the same thing, the weight of that convinces you that it’s true, said Logan. You don’t question it, because everyone is saying it.” She also admitted that journalists today are more or less lobbyists for liberal interests, adding that the weight of the liberal media machine overwhelms the other side unless people actively seek alternative outlets….”

“Logan said “Although the media has historically always been left-leaning, we’ve abandoned our pretense – or at least the effort – to be objective, today…..We’ve become political activists, and some could argue propagandists, and there’s some merit to that.”

“Responsibility for fake news begins with us.”

Lara Logan: Media Is “Coming After Me” For Telling The Truth About Liberal Bias, at zerohedge.com. There is a price to be paid for going against the politically correct leftist orthodoxy.

Excerpt from the article: “I am braced for fire and fury, I can give you the script now…..It’s the same people all the time, and who say the same thing…..they can’t take down the substance, they can’t go after the things that matter, so they smear you personally, they go after your integrity, they go after your reputation as a person and as a professional and they’ll stop at nothing.”

“If there are any independent voices out there, if there are any journalists that are not beating the same drum and giving the same talking points, then we pay the price.”

“Journalists have always needed two independent first hand sources. That’s always been the standard we’ve worked to> People know that we’ve slipped. People know that when those are no longer your standards…..that it raises questions, if you’re honest.”

Covington High School Student Files $250 Million Defamation Suit Against Washington Post, at zerohedge.com. Pushing back against the left. Look at the list of the 50 plus organizations, reporters, politicians and celebrities being sued.

Smollett Bail Set At $100,000; Empire Star Ordered To Surrender Passport, at zerohedge.com. This story is important for one reason. It shows main stream medias bias. They were so blinded by their bias, they couldn’t even see the signals that this might not be true. The MSM will do everything to blame this on someone or something else other than the perpetrator. He was ‘triggered’ to do this.

Charles Barkley Crushes Jussie Smollett, at theburningplatform.com. Watch this. It is priceless. This is how the Smollett situation should be handled. Sir Charles is a funny man because he says what you are thinking, but would never say out loud. The NBA on TNT pregame, halftime and post game shows with Charles, Shaq, Kenny and Ernie is most see TV.

The Epidemic Of Anti-Jewish Hate Crimes In Brooklyn Is No Hoax, by David Marcus, at thefederalist.com. This story is important because it shows the bias of the MSM. They decide what should and shouldn’t be reported. They ignore this because it doesn’t advance the vision of the left. Flip this script and it would be front page news.

Hate Hoaxes Are What Happen When Your Religion Is Identity Politics, by Jayme Metzgar, at thefederalist.com. Excerpt from the article: “While adherents of progressivism may sincerely believe they’re working to end oppression, the fact is that their model of morality requires oppression in order to exist. It requires that someone always be cast in the role of oppressor, whether he or she deserves to be or not. Any final end to oppression and evil—any real peace, unity, or brotherhood—is impossible.”

“Progressives decry the “privilege” and “power” of some identity groups over others, but the reality is that they don’t seek to abolish class struggle, but rather to wield it. Progressivism keeps us locked in an endless conflict, fighting to kill or be killed.”

“This is why progressives are so eager to make their fellow Americans into racists and bigots. Virtue is a zero-sum game; you can only gain yours if someone else loses his.”

“At some point, Americans’ patience with this punishing moral fervor will run out. When we finally grow weary of the endless offense-taking, shaming, bullying, language-policing, and pitting of one American against another, maybe it will be time to acknowledge that progressivism is a toxic belief system, incompatible with freedom, peace, and unity.”

Navratilova Attacked For Saying Women’s Sports Should Only Include Women, by Libby Emmons, at thefederalist.com. Martina Navratilova is finding out that being a lesbian is lower on the social justice scale than being transgendered. You pay a price for saying something against a higher ranked identity group. She is being seen as the oppressor of the transgendered. Where do you rank on the ladder of social justice?

Brit Hume Called ‘Sexist’ For Scolding Reporters Clothes Shopping With Kamala Harris, at tammybruce.com. Brit Hume is a journalist commenting on how the actions of other journalists proves their biased toward Kamala Harris. Doesn’t he understand that he is on the bottom rung of the identity politics ladder. He is committing a sin against social justice if he comments truthfully about people resting on a higher rung of the ladder. If he was a transgendered reporter, what he said would be alright. He needs to talk to Martina Navratilova.

The Pedophile Project: Your 7-Year-Old Is A Target, by Stella Morabito, at thefederalist.com. I can’t believe I’m saying this but being a pedophile will some day be the top rung on the ladder of identity politics. I’ve said in the past that pedophilia is going to be mainstreamed like transgenderism has. The argument will go something like this: How can you deny someone their sexual orientation? This is an eye opening article.

“Venezuela Was My Home, And Socialism Destroyed It. Slowly, It will Destroy American Too”, at zerorhedge.com. Great article about what happened when incremental government intervention in Venezuela turned into a socialist paradise. Socialism is defined as government ownership of the means of production. Government regulations and taxes take partial control of private ownership of the means of production. At what point does the increase of government regulations tip the balance of decision making about the means of production towards government bureaucrats instead of the private owner? How far away is the US from that tipping point. As Hayek said, “coordinating men’s activities through central planning leads to serfdom and poverty.”

This Day In History – Marx Publishes Manifesto – 2/21/1848, at the burningplatform. Leftist celebrate this day that should live in infamy.

Europe Is Losing The Technology Race. Here Is Why, at zerohedge.com. Government regulation on technology and innovation has driven Tech companies out of the EU. These companies are moving to the U.S. or China. Think about that! China is a better place for tech businesses than Europe? The good news is they can escape the economic tyranny of the EU.

Constitution’s ‘Excessive Fines’ Ban Bolstered By U.S. High Court,by Lawrence Hurley, at usnews.com. Why isn’t this a bigger story? This was a 9-0 decision for property rights and against tyrannical local and state government.

China Bans Millions From Flights, Trains In Social-Credit Crackdown, at zerohedge.com. China is punishing people who don’t think according to the government sanctioned orthodoxy. This can’t happen here, can it? Or are we already on the road toward this reality? Some of the articles above suggest that we have already traveled down this road. Let’s put on the brakes and turn around.

Trump Demands $2.5 Bn For California’s High-Speed Rail; Pulls $929Mn Grant, at zerohedge.com. Bureaucrats making economic decisions with other people’s money is always a disaster. What a waste of scarce resources which would have had productive alternative uses.

Kamala Harris’s Jamaican Father Wasn’t Amused By Her Joke About Marijuana Use, at mercurynews.com. No comment necessary. Here comments at the end are interesting to say the least. Here is an excerpt from the article:

“Donald J. Harris sent a statement to Jamaica Global Online seeking to “categorically dissociate” himself from the remarks of his daughter…..”

“My dear departed grandmothers (whose extraordinary legacy I described in a recent essay on this website), as well as my deceased parents, must be turning in their grave right now to see their family’s name, reputation and proud Jamaican identity being connected, in any way, jokingly or not with the fraudulent stereotype of a pot-smoking joy seeker and in the pursuit of identity politics,” he wrote.”

“Speaking for myself and my immediate Jamaican family, we wish to categorically dissociate ourselves from this travesty,” added Donald Harris, who is now an emeritus professor of economics at Stanford University.”

“Kamala Harris’s presidential campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment.”

“During the senator’s appearance on the New York radio show, “The Breakfast Club,” she defended the recreational use of marijuana, saying, “It gives a lot of people joy.”

“And we need more joy in the world,” she added.”

Democrats Take Down Another Judicial Nominee Because He’s A Christian, by Rick Esenberg and Anthony LaCoco, at thefederalist.com. In the eyes of the progressive left, if you are a Catholic you are disqualified form serving as a judge. Is it because of the Churches stance on abortion? So let me sum this up; A religious test, by a group of people which practices the religion of progressivism.

Autopsy Of A Dead Coup, by Victor Davis Hanson, at amgreatness.com. This is a great summation of the whole Russian collusion story. This is a must read of the must reads. Opening paragraphs from the article:

“The illegal effort to destroy the 2016 Trump campaign by Hillary Clinton campaign’s use of funds to create, disseminate among court media, and then salt among high Obama administration officials, a fabricated, opposition smear dossier failed.”

“So has the second special prosecutor phase of the coup to abort the Trump presidency failed. There are many elements to what in time likely will become recognized as the greatest scandal in American political history, marking the first occasion in which U.S. government bureaucrats sought to overturn an election and to remove a sitting U.S. president.”

6 Takeaways From Andrew McCabe’s ’60 Minutes’, by Adam Mill, at thefederalist.com. Excerpt from the article:

“McCabe’s self-congratulatory arrogance resulted in several careless statements that cement his place as a key villain in the greatest law enforcement scandal in the history of the United States.”

SATIRICAL HEADLINES

Chicago Police Credit Their Extensive Experience Falsifying Evidence For Helping Solve Smollett Case, at theonion.com.

Elizabeth Warren Claims Two Men In Colonial Outfits Assaulted Her With Smallpox Infested Blankets, at babylonbee.com.

Nike Fires 8-Year-Old Shoemaker Responsible For Zion Williamson Injury, at theonion.com.

Virginia Democrats Publicly Thank Jussie Smollett For Taking All The Attention Away From Them, at babylonbee.com.

Viewers Starting To Doubt Objectivity Of Reporter With ‘KAMALA 2020’ Face Tatoo, at babylonbee.com.

Police Officer Claims He Feared For His Life After Shooting Family’s Roomba To Death, at babylonbee.com.

Man Forced To Apologize For Whatever He Did In Wife’s Dream Last Night, at babylonbee.com.

CARTOONS

from the burningplatform

Categories: Must Reads For The Week
Tags: Anti-Jewish Hate Crimes In Brooklyn, Autopsy of a Dead Coup, Britt Hume Called Sexist, Cartoons from theburningplatform, Charles Barkley Mocks Smollett, China Social Credit Crackdown, Covington HS Student Files Defamation Suit against Washington Post, Europe losing Technology Race, Hate Crime Hoaxes, Identity Politics is a Religion, Judicial Nominee taken down because he is a Christian, Kamala Harris Marijuana Joke, Kamala Harris's Father Not Amused, Lara Logan Media Bias, Mainstream Media Fake News, Marx Published Manifesto in 1848, McCabe On 60 Minutes take aways, Navratilova says Women Sports Are For Women, Pedophile Project, Pedophilia Mainstreamed, Reporters Shop With Kamala Harris, Russian Collusion Story, Satirical Headlines, SCOTUS rules 9-0 against Civil Asset Forfeiture, Smollett Arrested, Socialism Destroyed Venezuela, The Babylon Bee, The Onion, Trump Wants High-Speed Rail Money Back, Victor Davis Hanson

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Must Reads For The Week 9/15/18

September 17, 2018

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?

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.

Categories: Must Reads For The Week
Tags: Acting Presidential vs. Acting Like Trump, Education Is Not A Right, Google Video: Panic and Dismay After Hillary Loss, Is Trump Chaos Impeachable, John Kerry colluding With Iran, Katie Pavlich and Candace Owens, Kris Paronto Calls Obama Coward, Obama Benghazi conspiracy, Pentagon Whistleblower and Russian Probe, Socialism, Strok Page Media Leak Strategy, The Babylon Bee, The New Socialists, Trump vs. The Resistance, Victor Davis Hanson

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‘The Onion’ Can’t Compete With The ‘Real’ News.

August 23, 2017

Sense vs Nonsense - Traffic sign with two options - meaningfulness and usefulness based on reason and vs stupid, silly and illogical absurdity

How can the ‘fake’ news ‘Onion’ stay in business when it can’t compete with the humor provided by the ‘real’ news?

‘The ONION’ couldn’t make up these two (real) stories:

ESPN Removes Robert Lee From Calling U-Va Game In Charlottesville Because Of His Name, – The Washington Post.

Traveler, USC Mascot, Comes Under Scrutiny For Having A Name Similar To Robert E. Lee’s Horse, – The LA Times.

Here is a story The ONION came up with: Six Flags Removes Confederate Flag.

Which is better?

How absurd have the squeaky wheels and the media become when a ‘Real Fake News Paper’, which is trying to be funny, can’t come close to being as funny as the ‘real’ news stories which are supposedly serious.

The good news is a majority of people can’t relate to this absurdity. And as the media continues to cover the behaviour of the people on the fringe, more people will see it for what it is and stand against it.

THE SILLIEST GENERATION

Victor Davis Hanson’s recent article titled: The Silliest Generation, gives great insight into the world in which we live. It makes you think, which is always a good thing. Here are some excerpts from the article:

“Every generation, in its modesty, used to think the prior one was far better. Tom Brokaw coined “The Greatest Generation” to remind Americans of what our fathers endured during the Depression and World War II—with the implicit message that we might not have been able to do what they did.””

Yet what is strange about the present age is that our current generation uniquely believes just the opposite. Apparently, we believe that most cadres before us were not up to our standards. Indeed, we are having to clean up their messes of racism, sexism, homophobia, nativism, xenophobia, and Islamophobia, as well as environmental desecration and global warming.”

“Apparently, proof our generation’s genius is that no one in the past had a clue how to build an iPhone or do a Google search—or even make a good Starbucks Teavana shaken pineapple black tea infusion. Yet given our own present lack of humility and meager accomplishments, we have combined arrogance with ignorance to become the smuggest generation in memory. What good is the high-tech acceleration in delivering information if there is now precious little learning to be accelerated? Google is an impressive pump, but if there is no real water, what is the point of delivering nothing faster?”

“For the silliest generation, human nature should somehow be seen as perfectible as a smartphone app. So no wonder we allow no glitches in the way people talk or think, if we sense they dare to deviate from our programmed correctness.”

“Rhetoric trumps muscle. The majority of Americans no longer work with their hands, grow food, make or build things, and they are paid quite handsomely to avoid such drudgery. But the result on society at large is that abstraction rules over practicality, and nature remains theoretical and deified rather than concrete and thus sometimes feared.”

“Those who sit at desks all day believe nature is mastered as easily as the temperature control in their offices—without much acknowledgement that different sorts of people are pumping natural gas to heat turbines to make electricity to send it into high-rises—and it isn’t always easy or clean. Techies love four-wheel drive cars, hiking boots, and parkas, as if by being prepared to go anywhere they can feel good about going nowhere.”

“The more technologically sophisticated we become, the more like a Mycenaean top-heavy palace we grow vulnerable. If the grid goes down, will those in Menlo Park learn that food is not grown at Whole Foods or that there is no such thing as a raisin plant?”

“This present generation’s impulse to play judge, jury, and executioner of the culpable of our past takes for granted that it does so as the moral superior of our forefathers. But that premise is an unfounded assumption.”

Related Article – If you liked that article, you might want to read another recent article by Victor Davis Hanson titled: Our War Against Memory.

Categories: Miscellaneous
Tags: ESPN's Robert Lee Pulled From Game, Real or Fake News, The Onion, The Silliest Generation, USC Mascon Traveler, Victor Davis Hanson

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

November 1, 2016

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.

Categories: Government and Politics
Tags: 2016 Presidential Election, American Empire, Hillary and Trump, Hoover Institute, Immigration, Obama the Divider, Uncommon Knowledge, Victor Davis Hanson

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Must Reads For The Week 6/25/16

June 25, 2016

Democrats “Gun Control” Sit In Continues Into Its Second Day On House Floor, at zerohedge.com. In my post three days ago titled The Breakdown Of The Rule Of Law, I said we are acting like third world countries when it comes to settling differences. The way our democrat party aristocracy acted when they did not get their way on gun control is exactly how protesters acted in Wisconsin when Gov. Scott Walker’s agenda got passed into law. Most people can’t relate to people acting like this because most of us have dealt with spoiled kids who don’t get their way. “I want my bottle now!”

Why Terrorists Target Gun Free Zones, by John Lott, at nypost.com. John Lott is the go to guy when it comes to guns and crime. Terrorists are logical thinkers. They will attack targets that provide little or no resistance. They want more bang for the buck and a gun free zone means law-abiding citizens will not bring a gun to these places. Only law breakers will.

Rangle Says His constituents Shouldn’t Have To Carry A Gun, However Congress Needs To Be Protected By Them, at theblaze.com. Do as I say, not as I do. Another example of our ruling aristocracy playing by different rules than the ruled. How can anyone take this man seriously after hearing what he said?

Higher Education’s Academic Monoculture, by Loyd S. Perregrew and Carol A. Vance, at mises.org. Colleges indoctrinate their students into one way of thinking about economics. In a classic bait and switch tactic they call our current crony capitalist system free market capitalism and then trash it. They push central planning by Government as the fix for our current economic problems. The students don’t understand that intervention in the free market by central planners is what caused our problems in the first place. In this article by Tom Bemis titled, Karl Marx Is The Most Assigned Economist In U.S. College Classes, he shows the economists colleges pick for their students to read. I don’t care if students read Marx, Keynes, or Krugman. I just want them to also read equal amounts of Mises, Hayek, and Adam Smith. I trust the logic of free markets will win our over the illogic of central planning. This is the reason Socialist central planners don’t want their theories challenged. They want a monopoly on the material that is presented.

New Site Tries To Give Colorado Degree-Seekers A Return On Investment On Their Degrees, at denverpost.com. Launchmycareercolorado.org is a site that tells students what they are likely to earn from their college degree. Just a guess but an engineering degree will probably return more than a women’s studies degree. Shockingly colleges aren’t happy with this site. They worry that: “…reducing the college experience to solely a monetary payoff sells short a higher ed experience. It could be a useful tool. But the value of a college education can’t be measured by a simple RIO. Part of the reason people go to college is to become well-rounded individuals.” I agree! How can you put a price on spending 4 or 5 years becoming a well-rounded partier. And of course the indoctrination that takes place can’t be measured.

Austin Goes Undercover In Sting Operation Targeting Underground Ridesharing, at keyetv.com. Two points. 1) I love the spirit of the American Revolution that is represented in the black market operating in Austin. Austin got rid of Uber, but the market for ride sharing didn’t go away. It went underground. 2) It is going to get more difficult for central planners to control what people do. Why? Because technology has made it possible for individuals to go around through and over the road blocks the planners put in our way.

Uber Is Progress, So Why Aren’t Progressives On Board, by Steven Horwitz, at fee.org. Progressives only see the status quo that’s in front of their nose. They are also central planners. Since Uber wasn’t planned by them, it can’t be good.

Obama’s Open Borders and Surging Deadly Disease In America, by Matthew Vadum, at frontpage.com. This is not a shock. I went on the Ellis Island tour years ago and I learned that immigrants were quarantined and sent back if they had diseases. All the talk of fixing our broken immigration system can be fixed is two things were done. 1) enforce the laws currently on the books. 2) Streamline and lower the cost of the process for immigrants to legally become Americans. Unfortunately politicians want the issue and not a solution. They can make political hay if there isn’t a fix.

Deadlocked Supreme Court Blocks Obama’s Immigration Plans, at zerohedge.com. The President usurped power that the presidency doesn’t have. The office of the president is not allowed to legislate in this area. This is another example of the breakdown of the rule of law. The president said he didn’t have the power to do what he did and went for it anyway.

State Department Disabled Security Software To Allow Hillary’s Private Server EMails, at zerohedge.com. Upon further review that private server wasn’t a very good idea was it? But it doesn’t matter when the rules don’t apply to the ruling aristocracy.

Europe’s Robots To Become ‘Electronic Persons’ Under Draft Plan, at reuters.com. I thought this was from the Onion. Never underestimate central planners desire to grab as much power and money as they possibly can. Why do we continue to let foolishness like this stand?

America In Free Fall, at victorhanson.com. Victor Hanson gives an historical perspective of countries who have gone through social and economic turmoil. What lies ahead for America?

Categories: Must Reads For The Week
Tags: America In Free Fall, Austin Targeting Underground Ridesharing, Breakdown Of The Rule Of Law, Colorado Degree Seekers Get Idea Of Return On College Investmen Statisticst, Congress Gun Control Tantrum, Deadly Diseases Comming Across Borders With Illegals, Democrats Gun Control Sit In, Europe's Robots To Become "Electronic Persons', Hayek Not Taught In College, Higher Education Academic Monoculture, Hillary Clinton's Private Server, Marx Taught In Colleges, Mises, Rangle Can Be Protected With A Gun, Rangle Constituents Don't Need Guns, State Department Disabled Security Software, Supreme Court Blocks Obama Open Borders, Terrorists Look For Gun Free Zones, Victor Davis Hanson, Why Don't Progressives Like Uber?

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Define Winning and Losing In The Israel-Arab Conflict

August 1, 2014

Lets take an unemotional look at the conflict between Israel and Hamas. Hamas is using the Palestinian people to paint an emotional picture far different from the reality that exists. Hamas can’t defeat Israel by fighting them in Gaza, it can only hope to defeat them by winning the Propaganda war they wage in the minds and hearts of the people of the world. The cost Israel makes Hamas pay for their attacks, must be high enough to keep Hamas from wanting to try it again anytime soon. That is reality, perception from propaganda is not reality.

Here are two great articles about the conflict. They are,

Cease The Cease-Fires, by Thomas Sowell, and

Winning A Lose/Lose War, by Victor Davis Hanson.

Here are some excerpts from “Cease the Cease-Fires”.

“According to the New York Times, Secretary of State John Kerry is hoping for a cease-fire to “open the door to Israeli and Palestinian negotiations for a long-term solution.” President Obama has urged Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to have an “immediate, unconditional humanitarian cease-fire” — again, with the idea of pursuing some long-lasting agreement.”

“The Middle East must lead the world in cease-fires. If cease-fires were the road to peace, the Middle East would easily be the most peaceful place on the planet.”

“Cease-fire” and “negotiations” are magic words to “the international community.” But just what do cease-fires actually accomplish? “In the short run, they save some lives. But in the long run they cost far more lives, by lowering the cost of aggression.”

“…when Hamas or some other terrorist group launches an attack on Israel, they know in advance that whatever Israel does in response will be limited by calls for a cease-fire, backed by political and economic pressures from the United States.”

“If you want to minimize civilian casualties, then minimize the dangers of war, by no longer coming to the rescue of those who start wars.”

“There is something grotesque about people living thousands of miles away, in safety and comfort, loftily second-guessing and trying to micro-manage what the Israelis are doing in a matter of life and death. Such self-indulgences are a danger, not simply to Israel, but to the whole Western world, for it betrays a lack of realism…”

“As for the ever-elusive “solution” to the Arab-Israeli conflicts in the Middle East, there is nothing faintly resembling a solution anywhere on the horizon. Nor is it hard to see why. Even if the Israelis were all saints — and sainthood is not common in any branch of the human race — the cold fact is that they are far more advanced than their neighbors, and groups that cannot tolerate even subordinate Christian minorities can hardly be expected to tolerate an independent, and more advanced, Jewish state that is a daily rebuke to their egos.”

Here are some excerpts from “Winning A Lose/Lose War”.

“Once again neighboring enemies are warring in diametrically opposite ways”.

“Hamas sees the death of its civilians as an advantage; Israel sees the death of its civilians as a disaster. Defensive missiles explode to save civilians in Israel; in Gaza, civilians are placed at risk of death to protect offensive missiles.”

“Hamas wins by losing lots of its people; Israel loses by losing a few of its own. Hamas digs tunnels in premodern fashion; Israel uses postmodern high technology to detect them. Hamas’s missiles usually prove ineffective; Israel’s bombs and missiles almost always hit their targets. Quiet Israeli officers lead from the front; loud Hamas leaders flee to the rear. Incompetency wins sympathy; expertise, disdain.”

“Westerners romanticize the Hamas cause; fellow Arabs of the Gulf do not. Westerners critical of Israel are still willing to visit Israel; sympathizers of Hamas do not wish to visit Gaza.”

“….Timidity explains much of the Europeans’ easy damnation of Israel. Putin escapes the disdain accorded to Netanyahu, because Netanyahu governs a small nation and is predictably reasonable; Putin governs a large one and is predictably unreasonable. Trashing Putin might involve some risk; trashing Netanyahu brings psychological relief.”

“If Israel blows up Hamas’s tunnels, dismantles its arsenals, destroys its missiles, devastates its military, and leaves Hamas weak and discredited, the world will quietly turn its attention away in a sort of grudging admiration of Israel’s success, with an unspoken conclusion that Hamas may have gotten what it asked for.”

“But if Israel panics, retreats from Gaza under a premature ceasefire with Hamas ascendant, and, as a victim, hunkers down under a rain of missiles, then the protests will only intensify and the world will shrug that Israel is suffering what it deserves. At least up to a point, opportunism, not morality, guides public opinion.”

“It is said that the 34-day Lebanon War of 2006 was a terrible defeat for Israel. Perhaps. But so far Hezbollah has not unleashed its huge arsenal of missiles, at a time when such coordination with Hamas might have kept all of Israel underground. Why?”

“…. Hezbollah quietly remembers the damage of 2006, the years of rebuilding, and the costs, both human and material, that it incurred by its so-called “victory” — and the subsequent lack of world sympathy for Hezbollah. The world cared little for postwar Hezbollah not because of its cause (which a sick global community often supported), but because of its image as a loser that foolishly squandered its capital for nothing. The same Germans who tuned Hitler out after Stalingrad had earlier egged him on after the fall of Paris. In an ill Europe of the 1940s, even the Holocaust did not lose Hitler public support; losing the war did.”

“In the supposedly lose/lose world of Middle Eastern warfare, Israel must ensure that Hamas nevertheless loses far more than Israel itself does, not because the world will publicly sympathize with the cause of the Jewish state, but because, for all its ideological chest-pounding, an amoral world still privately gravitates to the successful and distances itself from the failed. Only if Israel finishes its ongoing dismantling of Hamas will the current war end. In six months, long after MSNBC and CNN have gone on to their next psychodramatic stories, long after John Kerry has moved on to his next Nobel Prize quest, those in Gaza who now yell into cameras encouraging their leaders to kill the Jews will quietly agree not to try another such costly war with Israel — and that fact, and only that fact, will lead to a sort of peace, at least for a while.”

Categories: Government and Politics, Miscellaneous
Tags: Cease-Fires, Hamas, Israel Arab Conflict, Palestinians, Propaganda, Reality vs. Perception, Thomas Sowell, Victor Davis Hanson

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