Category Archives: libertarianism

President Trump And The Racism And Anti-Semitism Obsession

Anti-Semitism, Constitution, Donald Trump, libertarianism, Morality, Paleolibertarianism, Race, Racism

A friend—a brilliant scholar of Objectivism—expressed concern over my support (albeit waning support) for Donald Trump. He pointed out in an email that the president was “slowly, but surely, abandoning that outsider stance and was becoming part of the very system he fought against.”

It’s hard to disagree.

However, I had hedged my words in the book, The Trump Revolution, which stands up quite well, since I supported Trump’s “creative destruction” or “process,” more than anything else.

My friend points to Trump sending more troops to Afghanistan (“well, at least he’s committed to no nation-building”). He laments that “it was like pulling teeth to get POTUS to condemn the neo-Nazis in Charlottesville; yes, they had the support of the ACLU, just as they had the support of the ACLU when similar groups marched on Skokie”:

I’d be the first to defend their rights to march. But his initial response seemed so tepid to me; he finally was able to utter the words Obama wouldn’t: “Islamic terrorist”, but he couldn’t seem to utter the phrase “neo-Nazi” in his condemnation of those brown-shirt nutjobs who were chanting “Jews will not replace us” and who thought he wasn’t racist enough because he gave his beautiful daughter to that “bastard Kushner”. The whole thing reminded me of the Nuremberg rallies. …
Now, don’t get me wrong: “Antifa” are not interested in freedom. They are like the Red Stalinists who were for Hitler when Stalin and Hitler were “allies” and then against Hitler when the Nazis invaded the Soviet Union.

But I’m just puzzled that you’re not concerned by this scent of anti-Semitism that keeps emerging from some of Trump’s constituency; it seems like he doesn’t want to come down hard on them because he’s starting to act more and more like a politician: afraid of alienating a group of disaffected and disenfranchised voters who most obviously voted for him, and who he will need in any bid for re-election.

My response to the last is that I’ve never looked to the Leader to utter feel-good moral fatuities. A leader in the American tradition should stick to the Constitution. Moreover, the race meme and its use in American politics sickens me. Seriously, I support people’s right to hate me, even not to serve me. Maybe I
am that radical a propertarian. I want my president to shut up about race and uphold the Constitution, which he has failed miserably to do. I’m a minimalist gal.

My friend goes on to emphasize that he’s “a little puzzled not to have read much in [my] columns about this troubling issue. For me, a lot of it came out of the Bannon wing (despite Bannon’s valuable opposition to the neocons), but for me, there is no love lost with his ouster.”

My reply: I’ve never railed against anti-Semitism. So long as your mitts stop at my face, I don’t care if you hate me qua Jew. Maybe it’s naïve, but … I confess to hating the Left even more than caring about anti-Semitism.”

My friend was sadly right to have feared

that Trump would be absorbed by the very system he opposed, because it’s just in the nature of politics. Now with his amping up of the war in Afghanistan and his tepid responses to Jew haters, I’m extremely concerned. Help me out here.

Like my friend, my concern is more with War and the Deep State. I don’t see Jews becoming targets for more than verbal aggression. I certainly can no longer look up to Trump: His nepotism; his kids in the White House, his wars, no tax reform, no free market in medicine, no wall. All those issues consume me more than his reaction to the words of a fringe group.

UPDATED (8/23): Barcelona and Beyond: How Politicians & Policy Wonks Play God With Your Life

Business, Homeland Security, Individualism Vs. Collectivism, libertarianism, Terrorism

NEW COLUMN: “Barcelona and Beyond: How Politicians & Policy Wonks Play God With Your Life.” An excerpt:

… On TV, June 1, 2017, Alex Nowrasteh, immigration expert at the libertarian Cato Institute, argued that “foreign-born terrorism is a hazard,” but a “manageable” one, “given the huge economic benefits of immigration and the small costs of terrorism.”

Spoken like a collectivist, central planner and utilitarian rolled into one.

This is the Benthamite “utilitarian calculus” at its cruelest. It requires, first, for someone to play God. Whether she sits in Downing Street, D.C., Brussels, or Barcelona; the Godhead has determined that Muslims in our midst are a must in bringing “the greatest good to the greatest number of citizens.” Along the way, a few people will die. For the greater good.

In the words of “Stalin’s apologist” Walter Duranty, ”You can’t make an omelet without breaking eggs.”

However, a natural-rights libertarian values the life of the innocent individual. Only by protecting each individual’s rights—life, liberty and property—can the government legitimately enhance the wealth of the collective. Only through fulfilling its nightwatchman role can government legitimately safeguard the wealth of the nation. For each individual, secure in his person and property, is then free to pursue economic prosperity, which redounds to the rest.

See, statistics are silly unless given context. If you have one foot in fire, the other in ice, can we legitimately say that, on average, you’re warm? Hardly.

Probabilities, in this case the chance that any one of us will die-by-Muslim, are statistically insignificant—unless this happens to you or to yours, to me or mine. …

… READ “Barcelona and Beyond: How Politicians & Policy Wonks Play God With Your Life” at American Thinker.

This column can generally be read on Townhall.com,  Unz Review,  Daily Caller, American Thinker, and others, where The Mercer Column usually appears. And it’s always posted, eventually, on IlanaMercer.com, under Articles. Please share.

UPDATE (8/23):
Scott Puckett • 3 days ago

“A great article. It truly explains how the political elites and their minions think. The issue President Trump alluded to when he spoke of how General Pershing treated Muslin terrorists and insurrectionists were dealt with in the Philippines at the turn of the 20th century would be the way, in my opinion, to deal with these Muslin terrorists.”

UPDATED (7/25): Republicans Or Democrats: Who’s More Tiresomely PC?

Conservatism, Democrats, Free Speech, Left-Liberalism And Progressivisim, libertarianism, Logic, Political Correctness, Reason, Republicans

Conservatives habitually engage in this asinine, “No, Democrats are the sexist and racist party blah, blah; we’re the good party, party of Lincoln.” “No, liberals project onto us vices they’re guilty of and we’re free of; they do what they say we do.”

Such group thinkers all.

Any libertarian worth his salt hates this thought-crime policing on both sides. Who cares who’s sexist? Who cares if you have impolitic and impolite thoughts? The more improper thinking is expressed out loud; the more we break down barriers to politically risque thinking erected by both parties. (For instance, what I said in “THE WAR ON TRUMP: The Big Picture for Conservatives, Libertarians & Liberals” was verboten in conservative circles.)

Here Mike Cernovich rejoices, via a retweet, in the GOP nominating members of so-called marginalized identity groups. If you’re all about merit and individualism, not identity, why the hell do you care? Why partake in this idiotic, Democratic dance?

There’s no difference in modus operandi between the parties. Both window dress and virtue signal and accuse each other of not doing these enough.

Another incident sees Cernovich scold the awful Ana Navarro (we have a dossier on her: http://barelyablog.com/?s=Ana+Navarro) for being nasty about Jared Kushner. Why? Navarro is right. Why is Cernovich loving on Kushner?

Kushner looks and sound like a boy in transition.

From my, “What Ivanka Wants, Ivanka Gets”:

The man’s a mouse. … The poor man looks low T—like he might one day go the way of Bruce Jenner, now Caitlyn Jenner. (I love LGBTQ, so long as they come in peace.)

Not Jared’s fault. However, Jared’s bloody bad for the country, as well. But conservatives, being part of one tribe, must defend this nincompoop, rather than rejoice that the boring Ana Navarro is being bad, breaking with political propriety. Next, cons will force Navarro to apologize to the transgender Jared.

UPDATE (7/25): THREAD ON FACEBOOK.

Both these good people (Democrats like Gabbard and Webb) are in my book as must cabinet picks for Trump. The days that I imagined prez had the good sense to follow his promise and ignore the Manhattan La Familia are GONE.

Libertarians Looking For Trump To Reverse Or Nullify Bad Law

Constitution, Donald Trump, Law, libertarianism, Liberty, Regulation

Trump has signed 15 resolutions reversing Obama-era regulations. Kate’s Law—very important—has passed in Congress. Alas, the so-called Muslim ban is insignificant, unless followed up with something much more meaty.

The media are looking for “major pieces of legislation” from Donald Trump to properly asses him. To take the measure of the man as a president, I was looking for him to nullify lots of laws via Executive Orders. As said in “The Trump Revolution: The Donald’s Creative Destruction Deconstructed” (June 29, 2016):

“Should Mr. Trump deliver on his promises, consider nullification his political power tool, used by a benevolent Executive to pry the people free. Nullification should be properly considered as Justice’s Jaws of Life. As I said in the Opening, in this post-constitutional era, correctives to the corrosive actions of the State will reduce to action and reaction, force and counterforce.” (The Trump Revolution, p. 233, By ilana Mercer.)

In any case, when you read the convoluted and impenetrable legalese in which legislation is written, you wonder whether implementing change The People want is at all possible in post-constitutional American (a question asked and answered in the book aforementioned). You realize, too, that dismantling any aspect of the Administrative State is pie-in-the-sky (a thing for which the book mentioned had hoped).

Here’s a list of Trump laws, so far, courtesy of NPR. The words “Disapproving the rule” seem very musical, but who knows?

  • H.J.Res. 67: “Disapproving the rule submitted by the Department of Labor relating to savings arrangements established by qualified State political subdivisions for non-governmental employees”
  • H.J.Res. 43: “Providing for congressional disapproval under chapter 8 of title 5, United States Code, of the final rule submitted by Secretary of Health and Human Services relating to compliance with title X requirements by project recipients in selecting subrecipients”
  • H.J.Res. 69: “Providing for congressional disapproval under chapter 8 of title 5, United States Code, of the final rule of the Department of the Interior relating to ‘Non-Subsistence Take of Wildlife, and Public Participation and Closure Procedures, on National Wildlife Refuges in Alaska’ “
  • H.J.Res. 83: “Disapproving the rule submitted by the Department of Labor relating to ‘Clarification of Employer’s Continuing Obligation to Make and Maintain an Accurate Record of Each Recordable Injury and Illness'”
  • S.J.Res. 34: “A joint resolution providing for congressional disapproval under chapter 8 of title 5, United States Code, of the rule submitted by the Federal Communications Commission relating to ‘Protecting the Privacy of Customers of Broadband and Other Telecommunications Services’ “
  • H.J.Res. 42: “Disapproving the rule submitted by the Department of Labor relating to drug testing of unemployment compensation applicants”
  • H.J.Res. 57: “Providing for congressional disapproval under chapter 8 of title 5, United States Code, of the rule submitted by the Department of Education relating to accountability and State plans under the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965”
  • H.J.Res. 58: “Providing for congressional disapproval under chapter 8 of title 5, United States Code, of the rule submitted by the Department of Education relating to teacher preparation issues”
  • H.J.Res. 37: “Disapproving the rule submitted by the Department of Defense, the General Services Administration, and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration relating to the Federal Acquisition Regulation”
  • H.J.Res. 44: “Disapproving the rule submitted by the Department of the Interior relating to Bureau of Land Management regulations that establish the procedures used to prepare, revise, or amend land use plans pursuant to the Federal Land Policy and Management Act of 1976”
  • H.J.Res. 40: “Providing for congressional disapproval under chapter 8 of title 5, United States Code, of the rule submitted by the Social Security Administration relating to Implementation of the NICS Improvement Amendments Act of 2007”
  • H.J.Res. 38: “Disapproving the rule submitted by the Department of the Interior known as the Stream Protection Rule”
  • H.J.Res. 41: “Providing for congressional disapproval under chapter 8 of title 5, United States Code, of a rule submitted by the Securities and Exchange Commission relating to ‘Disclosure of Payments by Resource Extraction Issuers’ “
  • S. 496: “A bill to repeal the rule issued by the Federal Highway Administration and the Federal Transit Administration entitled ‘Metropolitan Planning Organization Coordination and Planning Area Reform.’ “
  • H.J.Res. 66: “Disapproving the rule submitted by the Department of Labor relating to savings arrangements established by States for non-governmental employees.”

Modifying Existing Programs (6)

  • H.R. 353: “Weather Research and Forecasting Innovation Act of 2017”
  • S. 442: “National Aeronautics and Space Administration Transition Authorization Act of 2017”
  • H.R. 72: “GAO Access and Oversight Act of 2017”
  • S. 419: “Public Safety Officers’ Benefits Improvement Act of 2017”
  • S. 583: “American Law Enforcement Heroes Act of 2017”
  • H.R. 657 “Follow the Rules Act”

Encouraging An Agency To Try Something New (5)

  • H.R. 321: “Inspiring the Next Space Pioneers, Innovators, Researchers, and Explorers (INSPIRE) Women Act”
  • H.R. 255: “Promoting Women in Entrepreneurship Act”
  • H.R. 534: “U.S. Wants to Compete for a World Expo Act”
  • H.R. 274: “Modernizing Government Travel Act”
  • H.R. 366: “DHS SAVE Act”

Naming Something/Siting A Memorial/Encouraging Flag Flying (5)

  • S.J. Res. 1: “A joint resolution approving the location of a memorial to commemorate and honor the members of the Armed Forces who served on active duty in support of Operation Desert Storm or Operation Desert Shield”
  • H.R. 1362: “To name the Department of Veterans Affairs community-based outpatient clinic in Pago Pago, American Samoa, the Faleomavaega Eni Fa’aua’a Hunkin VA Clinic”
  • H.R. 609: “To designate the Department of Veterans Affairs health care center in Center Township, Butler County, Pennsylvania, as the ‘Abie Abraham VA Clinic'”
  • S. 305: “Vietnam War Veterans Recognition Act of 2017”
  • H.R. 375: “To designate the Federal building and United States courthouse located at 719 Church Street in Nashville, Tennessee, as the ‘Fred D. Thompson Federal Building and United States Courthouse.'”

Personnel-Related (5)

  • S.J.Res. 30: “A joint resolution providing for the reappointment of Steve Case as a citizen regent of the Board of Regents of the Smithsonian Institution”
  • S.J.Res. 36: “A joint resolution providing for the appointment of Roger W. Ferguson as a citizen regent of the Board of Regents of the Smithsonian Institution”
  • S.J.Res. 35: “A joint resolution providing for the appointment of Michael Govan as a citizen regent of the Board of Regents of the Smithsonian Institution”
  • H.R. 1228: “To provide for the appointment of members of the Board of Directors of the Office of Compliance to replace members whose terms expire during 2017, and for other purposes”
  • S. 84: “A bill to provide for an exception to a limitation against appointment of persons as Secretary of Defense within seven years of relief from active duty as a regular commissioned officer of the Armed Forces”

Extending Obama-Era Policy (2)

  • S. 544: “A bill to amend the Veterans Access, Choice, and Accountability Act of 2014 to modify the termination date for the Veterans Choice Program, and for other purposes.”
  • H.J.Res. 99: “Making further continuing appropriations for fiscal year 2017, and for other purposes.”

Omnibus Appropriations Bill (1)

  • H.R. 244: “Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2017”

New Policy (1)

  • S. 1094: “Department of Veterans Affairs Accountability and Whistleblower Protection Act of 2017”

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