Democrats Aren't the Answer

http://chiefexecutive.net/2017-best-worst-states-business/

Hmmm, I wonder why Illinois, California and New York are the bottom three while Texas is number 1?

As someone that is strongly against generic republicans it is worth noting that the worst states for business and the worst states for population growth are all major democrat havens.  Democrats are quite literally socialists and socialism quite literally never works.  When will we stop experimenting with killing people by socialism?

Who is in Charge? You or the Government?

http://www.ronpaullibertyreport.com/archives/neocons-are-still-writing-the-script

“Neocons are patient.

They always keep their eyes on the prize.

Democrats....Republicans....’Outsiders’....

Neocons write the script.

Meanwhile, our lives, our safety, and (of course) our wallets are always at their beck and call.”

The neocons are the deep state.  They run the country.

https://mises.org/blog/3-ways-critics-get-praxeology-wrong

 “Criticism #3: “Why do you hate data so much?”

This is the basis for a third frequent criticism of Austrian economists. Detractors say that Austrians are afraid of data and stubbornly plug their ears and sing ‘lalala’ whenever they are confronted with supposedly inconvenient facts about the real world. But we’ve seen that there is no aversion to data, math, or statistics. These are just properly used in economic history or psychology and not in the testing of economic theory. The most that observation can do for theory is to guide the theoretician to construct relevant theory and perhaps to encourage the theoretician to take another look at a theory when all of the data “goes against it”, so to speak. Importantly, observations cannot falsify logically derived economic theory, but they can point an accusatory finger at a flawed step in the logic sometimes.”

So this is a new idea for me to grasp in economics.  I am more familiar with the Chicago school (I did go to UChicago, after all) but I agree with the Austrians that economics should be done through deductive reasoning.  I have nothing against the mathematical modeling and data mining but I don’t view that as axiomatic as the praxeological reasoning of the Austrian school.

https://www.fff.org/explore-freedom/article/conduct-background-checks/

The private market ALWAYS has a better incentive to keep you safe than the government.

Keep It Simple Stupid

http://thefederalist.com/2017/05/18/single-comic-strip-dilbert-just-nuked-global-warming-hysteria/

This comic is great.  We submit that climate change is occurring because we take biased and inaccurate measurements, which we then use in computer models we like while we ignore the ones we don’t like.  Then we apply the output to long-range economic models that have never accurately predicted any economic data.   

So, yes, climate science is definitely still up for debate.

http://www.ronpaullibertyreport.com/archives/medicare-medicaid-must-go-someday-but-how-they-go-is-still-up-in-the-air

America is twenty trillion dollars in debt.  Yes, $20 plus 13 zeroes.  We can band-aid our problem by cutting the EPA by 5% or negotiating the cost of fighter jet.  We can argue about these cuts in DC and on twitter ad nauseum, but the real hard truth here is that these cuts are mere drops in the bucket compared to our biggest budget line items – the military and the welfare state.

“Ideally, Americans would look squarely at the fact that the U.S. federal government has both an unsustainable welfare state at home AND an unsustainable military empire abroad. Both of these cannot continue ad infinitum.

Something is going to break someday and keeping these two monsters going will only hasten that day.”

The conclusion of this article is the unfortunate truth.

“So we'll either stop this by logically unwinding the military empire first, and giving people a chance to wean off of dependency and return to reality, or we'll wait until reality bites us harder than ever before.

History is replete with examples of people choosing the latter. It's like watching a dog chase its tail.

​But it doesn't have to be that way.”

I ask my millennial peers to claim what’s ours.  Demand our leaders to 1) focus on reducing America’s military role as the World’s Keeper; then 2) reform our social programs by enabling people to be self-reliant, and returning these programs to their roots of safety nets for only those who cannot do for themselves.

https://fee.org/articles/insider-trading-should-be-legal/

Legalizing insider trading is something we can only do in a stateless society. 

My jury is still out on the moral and economic consequences of legalizing insider trading, but I am more than willing to let some group experiment with this.

http://www.economicpolicyjournal.com/2017/05/how-to-get-complete-university.html

Father Guido Sarducci is on point!

More Stupidity from ESPN

http://www.businessinsider.com/dan-le-betard-espn-liberal-diversity-2017-5

The classic double down of the regressive left.  I hope this downs your show.  The more you claim we are racists and bigots the more we reject everything you say.  This is pathetic.

Challenging the Status Quo

http://www.beckershospitalreview.com/opioids/white-house-proposes-95-budget-reduction-for-drug-czar-office-7-things-to-know.html

I am firmly in the camp to end the war on drugs, so I see this as an excellent proposal.   It doesn’t quite go far enough in cutting 100% but I’ll take a 95% reduction in any and every government office.

https://www.vox.com/world/2017/5/9/15516278/north-korea-more-rational-than-you-think

 “Rational doesn’t mean easy to get along with.”

“None of this is to say that Kim’s actions are not morally abhorrent. But there’s a logic to them that can be discerned quite clearly by experts.”

Vox is easy to disagree with – they are a pretty strong left wing hack of a news source.  This article, however is correct.  We try to escape a solid discussion saying North Korea is run by a lunatic.  This may be true but his love for nuclear weapons make him the most rational dictator in the world today.  It is the only thing that has kept the US from attempting (too blatantly) trying to assassinate him.  He might be a nut but then again, he might not be.  Kind of hard to know if we won’t even talk with him.

http://www.independent.org/newsroom/article.asp?id=9070

A slice,

“The worst part of Venezuela’s tragedy is that it was so obviously predictable. Economists familiar with the work of Ludwig von Mises understood the necessary results of socialist policies. A sound money and freely floating prices provide a society with functioning markets that deliver the goods to the people. The market economy is true populism.”

Recent News Thoughts

http://ronpaulinstitute.org/archives/featured-articles/2017/may/07/president-trump-cancel-your-saudi-trip-play-more-golf/

“Many pundits complain that President Trump spends too much time golfing. I would rather he spend a lot more time golfing and less time trying to solve the rest of the world’s problems. We cannot afford to be the policeman or nursemaid to the rest of the world, particularly when we have such a lousy record of success.”

The more golf he plays, the fewer mistakes he makes.

http://blog.independent.org/2017/05/05/government-schools-sowing-the-seeds-of-our-destruction/

There is a reason that anyone who escapes the yoke of communism becomes strongly capitalistic and anti-government.

https://www.fff.org/explore-freedom/article/political-planning-versus-personal-planning-everyone/

Advocating against top down planning does not mean not planning at all. Similarly, a collective plan differs from personal planning by each individual.  Hayek touches on this nuance in his seminal work The Road to Serfdom.   Everyone can, and, in my opinion, should plan, but central planning by the state cannot be done to the individual’s satisfaction.  Governmental planning takes from one to give to another and is forced down our throats.  Hence the phrase, “taxation is stealing.” 

“The only successful government plans consistent with the liberty of individual planning and voluntary association in market and other social settings is the enforcement of those classical liberal principles and “rules of the road” that limit government to the recognition of and respect for each person’s right to his own life, liberty and honestly acquired property as means to pursue human happiness.

Anything beyond this replaces compulsory political Planning, with a capital “P,” with the proper and necessary planning of each free, peaceful and self-directing individual. There is really no compromise between the two.”

Who do you want choosing your plan for you?

https://www.brookings.edu/blog/unpacked/2017/05/08/why-tax-reform-will-be-difficult-for-trump/

This is perhaps the most ignorant analysis I have ever seen out of a prestigious institution.  Shame on you Brookings. 

A.      All income taxation is slavery.

B.      All taxation generally is immoral.

C.      The tax proposal doubles the standard deduction which disproportionately helps the poorest earners.

Our Foreign Intervention 'Solutions' Are the Problem

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/may/05/north-korea-accuses-cia-biochemical-plot-kill-kim-jong-un

Even if this accusation is entirely false, designed as propaganda, anyone who thinks the CIA doesn’t have a minimum of three plans to kill the North Korean dictator is living in a fool’s world. 

https://www.libertarianinstitute.org/economics/scandal-isnt-post-presidential-speaking-fees-political-pensions/

 “In the wake of Obama’s decision to accept a $400,000 fee for a Wall Street speaking engagement this September, the bill’s sponsors plan to reintroduce it. But neither the speaking fee nor the veto are what we should be noticing. The real scandal is how lucrative retirement has become for American politicians.”

Capitalism isn’t the problem – guaranteeing the pension of past presidents (and Congressmen/women is the bigger issue. 

https://www.fff.org/2017/05/05/separate-healthcare-state/

 “… No matter what healthcare reform plan Republicans end up enacting, America’s healthcare crisis will continue. It will be ongoing. It will last the rest of your life, so long as government continues to be involved in healthcare.

There is but one solution to America’s healthcare woes: the separation of healthcare and the state, which necessarily means the repeal, not the reform, of Medicare and Medicaid and all other governmental involvement in healthcare. The solution is a total free market in healthcare, one in which the state plays no role whatsoever.”

We didn’t always have healthcare issues. Of course, that was before the government was involved.