Category Archives: Donald Trump

Gary Johnson Conjures The Very Old SCOTUS Definition Of Pornography

Donald Trump, Elections, Foreign Policy, Freedom of Religion, Hillary Clinton, libertarianism, Welfare

Gary Johnson: A Free-Trade Bernie Sanders?
By Myron Pauli

I’ve never limited myself to Republican and Democratic nominees since I cast my first presidential vote writing in Barry Goldwater in 1972. No regrets on rejecting the decent but too-leftist George McGovern or reelecting “the president!” that imposed wage and price controls, killed the gold Standard, increased domestic spending, installed OSHA and the DEA, expanded the war in Indochina, etc.

Trump, Cruz, Sanders and Clinton all have their bad points to me but the first three occasionally say things I agree with. Trump has the best understanding of national identity, Cruz had the most detailed domestic spending cuts, and Sanders may be best on foreign/military restraint.

As for Hillary: Like the old Supreme Court definition of pornography, I find her “utterly without redeeming social value.” I am not “in the tank” for anyone, so I listened with interest to the person I supported in 2012, Gary Johnson, at the Libertarian Party Debate on the Fox Business Network. Keeping in mind that the Libertarian Party’s own website says, “The Party of Principle: Minimum Government Maximum Freedom.”

So imagine my consternation when I heard Johnson say about the welfare state: “I want to support those truly in need.” Now, I have met libertarians who wanted to cold turkey everything immediately – stop Social Security checks to 85 year-olds tomorrow! OK, maybe too drastic to people who paid into the system. Others would phase out the Nanny State over 50 years. But I’ve never heard an answer in favor of the Welfare State from a “Libertarian” until now. And I heard Governor Johnson talk about states running Medicare/Medicaid as if he were Governor Kasich advocating a “more efficient” Welfare State.

Where’s the “Principle”?

Then came the old “force people to bake Lesbian-Nazi wedding cakes” issue. Certainly, one could distinguish between the Park Service, Amtrak, the utility company, or even an internationally held corporation like Starwood Hotels having less “freedom of association” than an individual – but Gary Johnson did not. He would apparently call up the Army, Navy, Marines, Coast Guard, Air Force, FBI, CIA, DEA, INS, and TSA to make sure you made that floral arrangement! OK – not the most cosmologically important issue, but where is the “Minimum Government Maximum Freedom”?

When John Stossel quoted Milton Friedman that open borders were not compatible with a Welfare State, all that Johnson had were platitudes about Mexico’s best coming here to do jobs that “Americans won’t do.”

Dear Gary – if we really had no Welfare State -– e.g. “Live Free of Die” — is there not a wage at which whereby Americans would “do” the work? I was almost tempted to ask whether one has to actually cross the border to be a citizen since libertarians are net-savvy, can’t we have Chinese, Pakistanis, Congolese, etc. just apply “on-line” to be a citizen and vote in our elections? If Trump goes overboard on “drug dealing rapists” or “terrorists,” Gary Johnson seems to think the rest of the world are all angels completely compatible with “American citizenship.” ZERO admission criteria other than “no criminal record” into a Welfare State Democracy.

Not only must the Bears admit Goldilocks but also house her, feed her, and bake her Nazi-Lesbo wedding cake! In fact, Gary Johnson said that the candidate he was closest to was Bernie Sanders and was pressing to get the disaffected Bernie voters when Hillary wins the Democratic nomination. That may be fine – but are these angry Bernie voters “libertarians,” or just a bunch of social-leftists protesting crony capitalism? From Gary Johnson’s website, there is nearly nothing on programs to cut compared with Cruz, and virtually zero for “socially conservative libertarians.” Johnson emphasizes more a “dope smoking abortion-lovers for free trade” than a more consistent Ron-Paul type libertarianism.

All in all, I still have my personal dilemma: Who to vote for on November 8th? I have a choice of rather flawed candidates and, if I do vote Libertarian, is that to be interpreted as a disgruntled Sanders-independent opposition to Madame Defarge? Do I go with the demagogic braggart Donald “Believe Me” Trump or Carpetbombing Cruz? Muddled Gary? Do I write-in Jim Webb or Ron Paul? Do I just oversleep and forget to vote?

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Barely a Blog (BAB) contributor Myron Pauli grew up in Sunnyside Queens, went off to college in Cleveland and then spent time in a mental institution in Cambridge MA (MIT) with Benjamin Netanyahu (did not know him), and others until he was released with the “hostages” and Jimmy Carter on January 20, 1981, having defended his dissertation in nuclear physics. Most of the time since, he has worked on infrared sensors, mainly at Naval Research Laboratory in Washington DC. He was NOT named after Ron Paul but is distantly related to physicist Wolftgang Pauli; unfortunately, only the “good looks” were handed down and not the brains. He writes assorted song lyrics and essays reflecting his cynicism and classical liberalism. Click on the “BAB’s A List” category to access the Pauli archive.

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Week’s Tweets (4/22): TRUMP, White Lives Lost, Black Lives Matter, Roger Stone, Colorado, Brussels, Cruz Crap

Crime, Debt, Donald Trump, Europe, Objectivism, Race, Terrorism

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‘Shahs of Sunset’ Christiane Amanpoor Mocks ‘Poor Me’ America

Celebrity, Donald Trump, Foreign Policy, Iran, Journalism, Media, Race

In ways intellectual, Christiane Amanpoor is impoverished. The famous CNN anchor, however, is not poor. Amanpoor’s net worth is $12.5 Million. She’s lived, loved and worked among the upper echelons her entire life, in her birth place of Iran, too. Amanpoor is more authentically “Shahs of Sunset” than ordinary America.

Read how Amapoor conflates America (“rich”) with Americans (many of whom are awfully poor).

Via Media Matters comes Christian Amanpoor’s take on Trump’s America. She apparently is unfamiliar with white, working-class demographics:

CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR: [Donald Trump] always comes back to the dollars and cents. So, America’s broke, therefore, America’s weak. These are not true, right, so everybody else has to pony up. This is a businessman’s view of the world, presumably. But it doesn’t make sense when he talks about, for instance, NATO. NATO is not obsolete. Yes, NATO was created 60-plus years ago in response to the Soviet threat. But still, NATO is the organizing principle by which American and the Western democracies’ security is taken care of. And NATO is not just about the United States putting money in. It’s about all the other countries putting in their two percent of GDP as well. Now, they don’t all, that’s true, and America wants them to put more than they do right now. But a good number, nearly half of the NATO countries, put their two percent of GDP in. And the other countries do certain things that America doesn’t do. Now, America, because it is the most powerful military in the world, does a lot of the heavy lifting. You know, you have a military operation and America will do the troop lifting, for instance. Or it will do, you know, many of those kinds of things. But many of the other countries, whether it’s in Afghanistan or elsewhere, pick up a huge lot of the burden as well.

BROOKE BALDWIN (HOST): What about his point on nukes, how he said specifically he would be open to allowing Japan and South Korea to build their own nuclear arsenals so they can protect themselves from North Korea and China?

AMANPOUR: Well again, that puts on its head decades of the United States and its Pacific allies’ security relationship, and this is one of the first times we’ve heard a serious candidate, if not the first time, who will probably be the nominee for the Republican Party, put that forward, and it’s not a Republican sort of point of view that I’ve ever heard in previous elections. This poor me, America’s weak kind of thing is not the way Republicans generally see their view, and Americans’ view in the world. So one of the reasons why Japan does not have a nuclear arsenal is because of the horror that Japan committed during the Second World War. So Japan has been kind of forced to be a pacifist, pretty much, state. It has a military but it’s not an offensive military capability. And so there was a tradeoff. OK, you trade that off. And if there’s a problem, we’ll come to your rescue. But in the meantime, you’ll help us keep the peace in many other ways in that region. So that’s one of the reasons why Japan doesn’t have nukes. And then of course, well, when it comes to ISIS and all the other things, you need allies to be able to go and help you. [CNN, CNN Newsroom with Brooke Baldwin, 3/28/16]

UPDATED (4/9): Cruz Blames Victim; Big Business, For Big Government Shakedowns

Business, Donald Trump, Free Markets, Government, libertarianism

For someone who’s supposed to be so smart, Ted Cruz makes stupid arguments. This career politician, Cruz, repeatedly claims that Donald Trump is part of the DC corruption because (like all business moguls), Trump has paid politicians to let him operate. It’s ridiculous to blame the victim of government predation. Take away government and there would be no shakedowns.

More ridiculousness came today from Fox News and what passes for analysis there. In defense of Trump, bobbing-head Andrea Tantaros offered only that at least Trump admits to being part of the problem.

In Tantaros’ defense, Trump (who reads the wrong people) has adopted this idiotic line, namely blaming himself, the businessman, for a reality government brings about.

Again, take away government and there would be no shakedowns.


The correct answer is to be found under the heading “POLITICAL POWER VS. ECONOMIC POWER”:

“A successful politician and a successful businessman represent two solitudes, never the twain shall meet—except when the capitalist must curry favor with the politician so as to further his business interests, a reality brought about by corrupt politics. Trump’s donations to both parties fit a pattern forced by the regulatory state, whereby, in order to keep doing business, business is compelled to buy-off politicians. …

MORE.

UPDATE (4/9): Aside the fact that in a David vs. Goliath scenario there is never a moral equivalence between the parties—a libertarian never-ever conflates or draws equivalences between government corruption and individual or corporate corruption. Never! Thread:

Myron Robert Pauli: “Corruption is corruption whether it is business or government. A football team owner wants a taxpayer funded stadium. A State Department staffer negotiating a 2500 page ‘free trade agreement’ wants Hollywood to fund her spouse to be a DC lobbyist in return for writing IP protection for record companies into the agreement. I want a special tax exemption for overweight physicists with daughters from China! Whatever…. – who shakes down whom, the general idea is to benefit me and my friends over everyone else (taxpayers, consumers, competitors).”

Ilana Mercer: “Myron Robert Pauli, you show a profound lack of understanding of the workings of government vs. those of the individual; the workings of a monopolist in the use of force, vs. one who has no such power. Profound lacuna. Surprising too, given you write for my blog. This ancient column should tell you what I mean: “Media Concentration Is Not A Threat to Free Expression, Government Is.”