This is unrelated to this week’s letter — but have you read Matt Klein’s Overshoot Substack? He’s a macroeconomist, and has a fresh and persuasive ‘big picture’ take on today’s inflation and where we are headed. You can hear a recent podcast he did for The New Bazaar for free. John Authers at Bloomberg recommended, and I’m glad he did.
On the surface, I don't know how much a difference it sounds like to say "I want to maximize freedom so that people figure out their best life" versus "I want to maximize freedom so that I can choose to be evil" but even the slightest application in reality shows a whopping gulf.
People can say it's all the same policy regardless of whether the motives are good or evil, but it really isn't.
My problem with Libertarians (and I was intellectually curious about them for a while ( I was good with personal liberty, privacy issues etc)...and for some reason I met a lot of them when I was doing the online dating thing ( don't ask...lol). is that bottom line they were way more idealistic than me, and I am an extreme one...lol...their premise always seemed to be that left to their own devices, everyone will do the right thing...and there will be utopia and normal human traits that are not our good ones ( anger, fear, hate, stubbornness etc) will just disappear, plus they really lost me at taxes are theft and the anarchy thing...lol
I suppose it's probably for the best that the libertarian party has gone full MAGA. They're utterly irrelevant as a political force except as a potential spoiler, and the more MAGA voters they can peel off Republicans the better. I doubt this is their reason for taking the hard right turn, but like Trump vs. Musk, "let them fight."
Today's Libertarians are in favor of legal pot, prostitution and prejudice, eh?
The 2 major parties tend to define themselves in opposition to each other. What that means for Libertarians I can't fathom. Maybe with Republicans becoming more isolationist, Libertarians believe they should reciprocate by becoming more pro-hate groups.
Regarding the Libertarian fight, I’m reminded of “The Life of Brian” showing the bitter split between the People’s Front of Judea and the Judean People’s Front. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=WboggjN_G-4
Libertarianism is based on the bland truism that everybody likes liberty--like everybody likes money. It fails to take into account trading one liberty for another--e.g. freedom *from* being requiring to take off one's shoes and belt--in order to secure the liberty *to* travel to Europe by plane. I imagine the first social contract was an agreement whereby cave persons shared the standing of night watch so that it was not necessary for all to sleep with one eye open.
The problem with Libertarianism is libertarians. They always seemed highly susceptible to crackpottery. Though I have some libertarian ideas, I don't hang with libertarians. Just a sixth sense that 'the Jews' will come out at any moment.
Wow, I'd wondered why I hadn't heard anything about Libertarians in quite some time. I'd thought they were just suffering from attrition due to the aggressive recruiting of the MAGAhideen "freedom" fighters. Liberty for all as long as they agree with us. What could be more "American" than that. *sigh*
Btw CNN's program tomorrow evening on Steve Bannon sounds like a good one to watch.
Bbtw spotted on Breitbart, clip of Malcolm Nance talking about his new book "They Want to Kill Americans: The Militias, Terrorists, and Deranged Ideology of the Trump Insurgency":
Breitbart: "Malcolm Nance: We Have Only Seen the Start of the ‘Trump Insurgency’"
Here's a Saturday morning thought that's light on reason and logic and heavy on the Irish Cream I've been generously dosing my coffee with as I do a little catch-up reading, and therefore inappropriate for this well-reasoned and thoughtful space. But, what the hell...
The Republican Party is irredeemable. The Democratic Party is...well, I don't know what the hell it is these days, and I don't think they do either. I've often wished for a genuine, viable third party as an alternative. And I don't mean the Libertarian Party of Ron Paul or any of the current wackadoodles and miscreants calling the shots there after an apparently fairly simple and easy hostile takeover.
Well, one good turn deserves another...Maybe if enough of us Bulwark / Triad types worked at it a little, we could gather up enough Never Trumper, anti-Trumper, anti-populist, anti-authoritarian pro-democracy and genuine liberal & conservative types who are disaffected enough with the whole darned shootin' match these days to just walk in and take the damned thing over again for ourselves. I've never cast my lot completely with either side of the aisle or the parties found there. But I'd probably be down enough with this one to give it a try. Of course, a little re-branding would be required.
We could run JVL for President. He'd have a ready-made slate of cabinet picks right here, both kitchen and otherwise. But we'd have to find a way of talking him into it. Maybe just do it on a part-time basis, so he'd have time to persue his other interests. I mean, you put a guy in there that's 'always right', what could possibly go wrong, eh?
Anyway, I think it would be a hell of a party, one way or another. And I'd be glad to bring the Irish Cream. Or something more appropriate for gatherings at a later hour.
Not sure why anyone cares about what the Libertarian Party does or thinks. They have had a half century to make a significant difference in the balance of political power and have not succeeded.
Like all third parties it is an ideological/philosophical vanity project forever trying to distinguish itself from the hopelessly corrupt and inadequate dominant parties.
IF we lived in a parliamentary system THERE might be a rational purpose for third parties but as it is they are simply not serious.
This is unrelated to this week’s letter — but have you read Matt Klein’s Overshoot Substack? He’s a macroeconomist, and has a fresh and persuasive ‘big picture’ take on today’s inflation and where we are headed. You can hear a recent podcast he did for The New Bazaar for free. John Authers at Bloomberg recommended, and I’m glad he did.
On the surface, I don't know how much a difference it sounds like to say "I want to maximize freedom so that people figure out their best life" versus "I want to maximize freedom so that I can choose to be evil" but even the slightest application in reality shows a whopping gulf.
People can say it's all the same policy regardless of whether the motives are good or evil, but it really isn't.
This is actually pretty bad news if you ask me. The Libertarian candidate, Jo Jorgensen, pulled crucial votes from Trump.
https://thehill.com/opinion/campaign/550667-libertarians-elected-biden/
My problem with Libertarians (and I was intellectually curious about them for a while ( I was good with personal liberty, privacy issues etc)...and for some reason I met a lot of them when I was doing the online dating thing ( don't ask...lol). is that bottom line they were way more idealistic than me, and I am an extreme one...lol...their premise always seemed to be that left to their own devices, everyone will do the right thing...and there will be utopia and normal human traits that are not our good ones ( anger, fear, hate, stubbornness etc) will just disappear, plus they really lost me at taxes are theft and the anarchy thing...lol
Plus, they all aren't on the same page...lol
Guess they are now, I guess, if a bad page.
I suppose it's probably for the best that the libertarian party has gone full MAGA. They're utterly irrelevant as a political force except as a potential spoiler, and the more MAGA voters they can peel off Republicans the better. I doubt this is their reason for taking the hard right turn, but like Trump vs. Musk, "let them fight."
Today's Libertarians are in favor of legal pot, prostitution and prejudice, eh?
The 2 major parties tend to define themselves in opposition to each other. What that means for Libertarians I can't fathom. Maybe with Republicans becoming more isolationist, Libertarians believe they should reciprocate by becoming more pro-hate groups.
Seinfeld rif, so true.
And so-called conservatives are in fact Nazis today
Regarding the Libertarian fight, I’m reminded of “The Life of Brian” showing the bitter split between the People’s Front of Judea and the Judean People’s Front. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=WboggjN_G-4
Libertarianism is based on the bland truism that everybody likes liberty--like everybody likes money. It fails to take into account trading one liberty for another--e.g. freedom *from* being requiring to take off one's shoes and belt--in order to secure the liberty *to* travel to Europe by plane. I imagine the first social contract was an agreement whereby cave persons shared the standing of night watch so that it was not necessary for all to sleep with one eye open.
Love it when JVL tracks larger trends in politics!
"The party’s core active membership is in the low five figures..." - and yet here we are, talking about them again. Can I ignore them yet?
The problem with Libertarianism is libertarians. They always seemed highly susceptible to crackpottery. Though I have some libertarian ideas, I don't hang with libertarians. Just a sixth sense that 'the Jews' will come out at any moment.
Wow, I'd wondered why I hadn't heard anything about Libertarians in quite some time. I'd thought they were just suffering from attrition due to the aggressive recruiting of the MAGAhideen "freedom" fighters. Liberty for all as long as they agree with us. What could be more "American" than that. *sigh*
Btw CNN's program tomorrow evening on Steve Bannon sounds like a good one to watch.
Bbtw spotted on Breitbart, clip of Malcolm Nance talking about his new book "They Want to Kill Americans: The Militias, Terrorists, and Deranged Ideology of the Trump Insurgency":
Breitbart: "Malcolm Nance: We Have Only Seen the Start of the ‘Trump Insurgency’"
https://www.breitbart.com/clips/2022/07/15/malcolm-nance-we-have-only-seen-the-start-of-the-trump-insurgency/
Bbbtw, move along folks, no information warfare from the Putin/MAGA/Orban axis to see here:
1. RT: "Trump voters favor secession for their states – poll"
https://www.rt.com/news/559080-trump-voters-favor-secession-poll/
"Backers of the former president believe they’d be “better off” if GOP-led states split from the US, a Yahoo/YouGov survey has shown"
2. RT: "Ex-White House doctor makes Biden prediction"
https://www.rt.com/news/559078-white-house-doctor-biden-unfit/
"The former White House physician says the US president won’t finish his term as his mind is ‘too far gone’"
3. RT: "Tucker Carlson slams ‘corrupt’ Ukraine"
https://www.rt.com/news/559074-tucker-carlson-ukraine-putin/
"The US should focus its energies on countering China, not Russia, the Fox News host argued"
4. RT: "Anti-Russia sanctions ‘killing’ EU economy – Orban"
https://www.rt.com/business/559029-russia-sanctions-killing-european-economy-orban/
"Hungary’s prime minister says the EU’s response to Moscow was a miscalculation and has severely backfired"
Carry on. :)
Here's a Saturday morning thought that's light on reason and logic and heavy on the Irish Cream I've been generously dosing my coffee with as I do a little catch-up reading, and therefore inappropriate for this well-reasoned and thoughtful space. But, what the hell...
The Republican Party is irredeemable. The Democratic Party is...well, I don't know what the hell it is these days, and I don't think they do either. I've often wished for a genuine, viable third party as an alternative. And I don't mean the Libertarian Party of Ron Paul or any of the current wackadoodles and miscreants calling the shots there after an apparently fairly simple and easy hostile takeover.
Well, one good turn deserves another...Maybe if enough of us Bulwark / Triad types worked at it a little, we could gather up enough Never Trumper, anti-Trumper, anti-populist, anti-authoritarian pro-democracy and genuine liberal & conservative types who are disaffected enough with the whole darned shootin' match these days to just walk in and take the damned thing over again for ourselves. I've never cast my lot completely with either side of the aisle or the parties found there. But I'd probably be down enough with this one to give it a try. Of course, a little re-branding would be required.
We could run JVL for President. He'd have a ready-made slate of cabinet picks right here, both kitchen and otherwise. But we'd have to find a way of talking him into it. Maybe just do it on a part-time basis, so he'd have time to persue his other interests. I mean, you put a guy in there that's 'always right', what could possibly go wrong, eh?
Anyway, I think it would be a hell of a party, one way or another. And I'd be glad to bring the Irish Cream. Or something more appropriate for gatherings at a later hour.
Not sure why anyone cares about what the Libertarian Party does or thinks. They have had a half century to make a significant difference in the balance of political power and have not succeeded.
Like all third parties it is an ideological/philosophical vanity project forever trying to distinguish itself from the hopelessly corrupt and inadequate dominant parties.
IF we lived in a parliamentary system THERE might be a rational purpose for third parties but as it is they are simply not serious.