The “New Left” Isn’t The Only Opponent of Capitalism
From the lefty VOX, commenting on “Alt-Right” (national socialist) support for “universal basic income” and “single-payer healthcare”:Alt-rightists and other Trump-loyal conservatives — Richard Spencer, VDARE writer and ex–National Review staffer John Derbyshire, Newsmax CEO and Trump friend Christopher Ruddy, and onetime Donald Trump Jr. speechwriter and Scholars & Writers for Trump head F.H. Buckley — all endorsed various models of single-payer in recent months and years.(Note: I’m not familiar with the “Trump-loyal conservatives” to know if it is fair for VOX to lump them with the “alt-right” as they do in the above paragraph.)White-nationalist Richard Spencer now supports Biden after Trump had Qassem Soleimani killed in a military airstrike.
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Superficially, the 21st-century “new-left” and “alt-right” are on opposing ends, but in terms of essentials — like the fascists and communists of the 20th century — they are the same: both anti-capitalism.Recommended Reading:California Fires: How 120 Years of Active Fire Suppression Created a Tinderbox in California
From EPA.gov:Average drought conditions across the nation have varied since records began in 1895. The 1930s and 1950s saw the most widespread droughts, while the last 50 years have generally been wetter than average (see Figure 1).
"This chart shows annual values of the Palmer Drought Severity Index, averaged over the entire area of the contiguous 48 states. Positive values represent wetter-than-average conditions, while negative values represent drier-than-average conditions. A value between -2 and -3 indicates moderate drought, -3 to -4 is severe drought, and -4 or below indicates extreme drought. The thicker line is a nine-year weighted average."From the U.S. Drought Monitor:
From: https://firerestorationgroup.org/In the West, fires are burning today at higher intensities and larger spatial scales than in the recent past. With the attempted removal of Native Americans and their cultures of extensive burning, coupled with roughly 120 years of active fire suppression, we are experiencing an unraveling of ecosystem stability. This comes at a time when climate change is exacerbating drought and extending fire seasons. […]Scientists are clear that we are in a severe deficit of “good fire.” Prior to 1800 approximately 4.5 million acres were burning in California annually, half of which were from tribal burning. Today our forests are two to three times more dense than they were historically. While we are not returning to the 1800s, we need to extensively restore fire on the California landscape as a pathway to resilience.From an MSN article:
“I don’t want to be alarmist. But I think the conditions are there,” said Scott Stephens, a UC Berkeley professor of fire science and lead author of a 2018 paper that raised the specter of future mass forest fires as intense as the Dresden, Germany, and Tokyo firebombings.“As those [trees] continue to fall, the physics of it are unchanged. If you have dead and downed logs … the fires described in warfare are possible.”One of hundreds of major blazes to erupt in this record-breaking fire season in California, the Creek fire has underscored the urgency of reducing that monster fuel load.The only way to do that on the broad, landscape level needed, many experts say, is with fire of a different sort.“All of us on the paper were suggesting that if you are going to try to reduce that mass fire problem in the future, you really need to start putting prescribed fire into these stands to start whittling away at those bigger fuels,” said Forest Service research ecologist Malcolm North, one of Stephens’ eight co-authors.[…]Some areas have 500 to 800 trees per acre, compared with 60 to 100 pre-settlement. As North puts it, there were too many straws in the dry ground competing for water. The beetle toll was the greatest in the densest stands. There dead fuel will keep piling up for years to come.Climate change, which accentuated drought severity and is promoting record-breaking heat waves this summer, “is like the frosting on the cake,” said conservationist Craig Thomas.Here is a video with Scott Stephens at the UC Berkely Fire Science Lab which has some interesting photos of how California forests have changed over the century.https://youtu.be/2r7JI6zVwf0
What $30,000 Buys in Public Education in D.C.
Writes Terence P. Jeffrey on "D.C. Public Schools Spend $30K Per Student; Only 23% of 8th Graders Proficient in Reading", CNS News, (September 16, 2020):The public elementary and secondary schools in the District of Columbia spent $30,115 per pupil during the 2016-2017 school year, according to Table 236.75 in the Department of Education's "Digest of Education Statistics."But only 23% of the eighth graders in the D.C. public schools were proficient or better in reading in 2019, according to the department's National Assessment of Educational Progress, or NAEP, tests.Similarly, only 23% of eighth graders in the district's public schools were proficient or better in mathematics.
The Democrat That Cried Racist, etc.
There has been much outrage and headlines over the "fact" that Trump wants to serve three terms.In truth, when Trump said he was running in 2048, or whatever year after a second term, he was in fact joking.— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 21, 2019From the Washington Post (April 2019):
President Trump on Thursday joked about serving more than two terms as president, telling a crowd that he might remain in the Oval Office “at least for 10 or 14 years.”Trump made the comments on the same day that special counsel Robert S. Mueller III’s report was released to the public.At an event for the Wounded Warrior Project, Lt. Gen. Michael S. Linnington, chief executive of the veterans charity, gave Trump a trophy to thank him for his support.“Well, this is really beautiful,” Trump told the crowd in the East Room of the White House. “This will find a permanent place, at least for six years, in the Oval Office. Is that okay?”After some laughter from the crowd, Trump continued: “I was going to joke, General, and say at least for 10 or 14 years, but we would cause bedlam if I said that, so we’ll say six.”
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As for an example of a legitimate claim against Trump, the claim that Trump is using the antitrust laws against Amazon/Bezos because he regards Bezos and his Washington Post as a political enemy seems to have some merit (though we will have to see what facts the court case brings out). Then again, the Washington Post seems to approve of antitrust in general so perhaps there is some “justice” in their being “hoisted with their own petard.”***
My point is that there is so much said about Trump — much of it untrue — that the noise drowns out legitimate criticisms of Trump. I see this with the fictional “boy that cries wolf,” or, the Democrat that calls every Republican a “racist!” “Trump’s a racist? Well didn’t you say the same thing about Goldwater, Ford, Reagan, Bush I & II, McCain, Romney, …”The Q-Anon Distraction
There has been much made in the media of Trump's so-called support of some group called Q-Anon.Here is the first video that shows up for me on YouTube for “Trump and Q-Anon”:Here is the essence of what Trump said:“I don’t know much about the movement, other than I understand they like me very much, which I appreciate ….I have heard that it is gaining in popularity … I’ve heard these are people that love our country.”Here is what the video shows:
- Trump doesn’t know anything about Q-Anon
- Trump doesn’t walk into the reporter trap of condemning Q-Anon out of hand based on the reporter’s description
- Trump opposes pedophilia
Trump Era H-1B Visa Restrictions Bleed America of Its Foreign Talent
Stuart Anderson at Forbes succinctly points out that the Trump Administration's H1-B visa restrictions won't create new U.S. jobs, but move sectors of the economy outside of the U.S. where workers are not restricted by their nationality:Government officials and others who ignore or won’t concede that the labor market is global seem to believe, despite the evidence, that companies won’t send work outside the United States in response to H-1B visa restrictions. “Foreign affiliate employment increased as a direct response to increasingly stringent restrictions on H-1B visas,” according to firm-level data in important research by Britta Glennon, an assistant professor at the Wharton School of Business. “[A]ny policies that are motivated by concerns about the loss of native jobs should consider that policies aimed at reducing immigration have the unintended consequence of encouraging firms to offshore jobs abroad.”“IT outsourcing has evolved from relatively simple tasks to much more complex software development,” notes the Wall Street Journal. “[Pennsylvania-based] EPAM developers, scattered across more than 160 offices in multiple time zones using Microsoft’s collaboration software, Teams, routinely work on a single project. For example, developers in Hungary, Belarus, Ukraine, and the U.S. are working on booking platforms for a major online travel company.”What will be the impact of the new H-1B regulation? “All of the changes in the regulation are likely to be resisted by employers as inconsistent with the statute and economically harmful,” said William Stock. “If allowed to go into effect, the regulation will continue the current trend of employers sending high-value technology work offshore because of policies from this administration that are keeping and pushing key personnel outside the United States.” ["Regulation To Restrict H-1B Visas Moves Toward Final Step"]
More importantly, as Robert Tracinski argued in Restrictions on “H-1B” Visas Punish Ability and Trample the Rights of Employer and Employee:
The irrational premise behind our nation’s immigration laws is that a native-born American has a “right” to a particular job, not because he has earned it, but because he was born here. To this “right,” the law sacrifices the employer’s right to hire the best employees — and the immigrant’s right to take a job that he deserves. To put it succinctly, initiative and productiveness are sacrificed to sloth and inertia.The “American dream” is essentially the freedom of each individual to rise as far as his abilities take him. The opponents of immigration, however, want to repudiate that vision by turning America into a privileged preserve for those who want the law to set aside jobs for them — jobs they cannot freely earn through their own efforts.The quotas on H-1B visas — along with all other visas — should not just be expanded; they should be eliminated. Any immigrant who wants to come to America in search of a better life should be let in — and any employer who wants to hire him should be free to do so. Anything less would be un-American.Related: Rebecca Girn: Trump’s Immigration Visa Restrictions are a Violation of Individual Rights
Objectivists and The 2020 U.S. Presidential Election
This post has been significantly updated and has moved to a new location. Click here.Aaron Briley: We Can’t Fight Racism by Engaging in Racism
Philosopher Aaron Briley at TOS remarks on America's race fixation in "We Can’t Fight Racism by Engaging in Racism":The desire not to be viewed as racist is prompting people to fixate on race—even though doing so harms all involved.In the current climate, the mere appearance of being racist can cost a person dearly. People who are presumed to be racist can be and often are fired from their jobs, banned from social media, even subjected to death threats. The upshot: Instead of being rationally color-blind, people and institutions are putting undue focus on race. That is, instead of judging people not by “the color of their skin but by the content of their character,” they are doing just the opposite. They are judging people by the color of their skin—and acting accordingly—in order to not appear racist.Of course, judging people differently because of the color of their skin is the very essence of racism. And such patent racism is sweeping through our institutions.[...]Consider an increasingly popular policy regarding minority criminal suspects: More and more, police departments are omitting race when describing suspects, especially black suspects, even when divulging it clearly would help to ensure public safety.
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An illustration of this "color-washing" is CNN's report of black children slaughtered over the July 4th, 2020 holiday weekend, titled "At least 6 children were killed by gun violence across the nation this holiday weekend." Apparently, according to CNN, a bunch of guns decided all on there own to go celebrate independence day by causing some violence. (Obviously, guns are inanimate objects, that had nothing to do in causing the violence, as only human beings possess free-will.)From the CNN article:In every case, where a description is available the perpetrator is black, though you would not know this from the CNN article. The most we get is that they were "persons":At least six children were killed in shootings across the country over the holiday weekend, sparking calls from officials to end the gun violence plaguing their communities. The children, ages 6 to 14, were all shot and killed while doing everyday things -- riding in mom's car, walking in a mall, and playing in a yard with their cousins. [ "At least 6 children were killed by gun violence across the nation this holiday weekend"]
"A suspect has been arrested on charges, and police have released additional surveillance images of several persons of interest they are seeking in connection to the child's death."Going to the police press release of the shooter -- and the suspects -- we see they are all black. (It is also chilling that the police report does not describe them as black either). Or, from the same article reporting on another shooting:
A group of children were playing in the yard in Chicago's Austin neighborhood when three suspects exited a light colored vehicle and fired shots at a group gathered outside a home on the 100 block of North Latrobe Ave, police said.[...]"As a city we must wrap our arms around our youth so they understand there's a future for them that isn't wrapped up in gun violence."At least we know the shade of the suspect's vehicle.Now compare this to another shooting report and take a look at CNN's description when the perpetrator is white and the victim is black:
"...a White officer firing seven times into Jacob Blake's back in front of the 29-year-old Black man's three young sons."And later in the same article where the perpetrator is white:
"...Confusion also spread about the shooting during the protests, with critics asking how the White teenager armed with a military-style rifle, ..."
James Stock: Government Must End Ban of Cheap Rapid Response COVID-19 Antigen Tests
Writing in the FInanical Post, James H. Stock on why Lockdowns are too blunt a weapon against Covid makes three key points:1. "[E]conomic lockdowns are neither necessary nor sufficient to suppress Covid-19"
[E]conomic lockdowns are neither necessary nor sufficient to suppress Covid-19. But the concerted use of largely non-economic interventions can suppress the virus and set the stage for the recovery of demand and employment in restaurants, travel and other high-contact sectors. ...economic lockdowns alone are a blunt, costly and only partially effective instrument of public health.
2. Less expensive measures though individually not effective, when combined together become highly effective
There are many less expensive measures that, when deployed together, can be highly effective. These include working from home and setting rules to make the workplace safe. Taking special steps to protect the elderly, reopening the lowest-contact economic sectors first, banning the highest-risk activities such as bars and large social gatherings, wearing masks, social distancing and enhanced testing, quarantine, and contact tracing are already familiar. If they are seriously adopted, together they can suppress the virus without resorting to a new round of economic lockdowns.
2. The most important measure is wide use of frequent, cheap, rapid screening tests
Most important, testing for the virus remains grossly inadequate....Rapid screening tests need to be widely available...My colleague Michael Mina argues persuasively that the government should fast-track approval and production of cheap paper-strip antigen tests that would alert the newly infected of the need to isolate.Screening tests need not detect every infection. Mathematically, rapid testing and isolation acts like herd immunity: by reducing the chance that a susceptible individual comes into contact with an infected one it can drive the basic reproduction or “R” number below one. Even if a testing regime pulls only a fraction of the infected out of circulation, that — along with other measures such as widespread mask usage and targeted bans of potential superspreader events — can suppress the virus, bring down deaths to very low levels and set the stage for a strong recovery.
Ray Girn: The Individual Life Fully Lived is Sacred
"The individual human life fully lived is an end in itself." - Ray GirnEducation innovator, Ray Girn, one of the world's foremost experts in scaling Montessori education gives a moving speech on the importance of creating conditions to optimize a child's environment so that they may live a life that is "fully lived." Must listen.Andrew Bernstein and Aaron Briley on Racism
"You know no one ever questions why a black student studies African-American studies but they do when he studies Aristotle, unfortunately."- Aaron Briley"The subject of racism has gradually snowballed over recent years, and exploded into mainstream culture over the past month. Brands are declaring their commitment to fight racism, several organisations have launched mandatory diversity trainings—even the Oscars have recently introduced certain diversity requirements for eligibility for the award. Individuals are making and denying accusations of racism in droves, and the terms ‘white fragility’, ‘systemic racism’ and ‘complicity’ have been used liberally and passionately. In order to make sense of, judge and properly respond to this new wave of events, it is essential to philosophically unpack it. What is racism? What is not racism? Is racism best countered by governmental action, organisational policy, or something else entirely? Andrew Bernstein is a philosopher and novelist. He is the author of several books, including The Capitalist Manifesto, Capitalism Unbound, and the recently-published Heroes, Legends, Champions: Why Heroism Matters. Aaron Briley, Ph.D., is a philosopher who promotes life-enhancing cultural values to black Americans, with the ultimate goal of bringing about a Black Renaissance of education, achievement, and fulfillment. He is a fellow/research associate Objective Standard Institute on race relations, cultural improvement, individualism, clear thinking, and freedom." Video made available by the Ayn Rand Center UK.
Thomas Sowell: A Legend at 90 Examines Charter Schools and Their Enemies
https://youtu.be/9boQrCPwMwsThe day before this show was recorded, Dr. Thomas Sowell began his 10th decade of life. Remarkably on one hand and yet completely expected on the other, he remains as engaged, analytical, and thoughtful as ever. In this interview (one of roughly a dozen or so we’ve conducted with Dr. Sowell over the years), we delve into his new book Charter Schools and Their Enemies, a sobering look at the academic success of charter schools in New York City, and the fierce battles waged by teachers unions and progressive politicians to curtail them. Dr. Sowell’s conclusion is equally thought provoking: If the opponents of charter schools succeed, the biggest losers will be poor minority children for whom a quality education is the best chance for a better life.
C. Bradley Thompson: Correcting Myths of The Founding Fathers and Trump’s Attack on The “Deep State”
Dave Rubin of The Rubin Report talks to the author of America's Revolutionary Mind, C. Bradley Thompson (Professor, Clemson University) about the origins of the Declaration of Independence, myths about American slavery and the founding fathers, why 1765 was possibly a more important year than 1776 for the American Revolution and why Donald Trump is one of the few presidents to ever challenge the deep state. Issues covered include:- Myths about slavery in America at the time of the founding fathers. He talks about the founding fathers beliefs in universal truths, human rights, and equality. He discusses the complexities of the founders regarding their different and changing views on slavery and why it is far more complicated than 1619 project from the New York Times would have you believe. Some founders like John Adams and Sam Adams were never slave owners, others like Benjamin Franklin formally owned slaves, others like George Washington who owned slaves and freed them on their death, and others like Thomas Jefferson owned slaves and did not free them upon their death.
- The founders conflicting actions and beliefs about the abolition of slavery and why it is far more complex then we have been led to believe.
- The philosophical origins of the Declaration of Independence. He believes the year 1765 was far more important than 1776 because this was the year that the American mind was born. He tells the story of why Americans suddenly made liberty, freedom, and natural rights their priorities that would eventually be enshrined in the Declaration of Independence and fought for during the Revolutionary War.
- Donald Trump’s unique accomplishments, taking on the deep state. He feels that Donald Trump is the first president in 70 years to wage war against the deep state in it’s entrenched political class, but also in the mainstream media.
- Is Donald Trump a moral person and if morality and virtue are personality traits we should expect in a president.
- America's Revolutionary Mind by C. Bradley Thompson
Democrat Rep. De John Berry Powerful Speech Against The BLM Riots
Rep. John Deberry Jr. channels MLK and states that the "protests" are not peaceful but are self-destructive to the black Americans in particular and America in general."If we don’t start standing for something don’t you know that the people that are looking at what’s happening in Washington, in Detroit, in Portland, in Seattle, they’re getting emboldened because we act like a bunch of punks. Too frightened to stand up and protect our own stuff. You tell me that somebody has the right to tear down property that Tennessee taxpayers paid for? That American taxpayers paid for? And somebody has the right to destroy it, deface it, and tear it down? What kind of people have we become?""Peaceful protests ends peacefully, anarchy ends in chaos. What we see happening right now, any of us with any common sense, any common sense whatsoever, know that what we see is not peaceful. So we can continue to fool ourselves and mix with words and use rhetoric and public relations in order to frost this stuff over and put a nice picture on what we see that is frightening."Well said, sir. Well said.
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In May of 2020, the Tennessee Democratic Party’s State Executive Committee voted to remove DeBerry from the Democratic primary ballot after 26 years in office, because according to one committee member who voted to remove him DeBerry wasn’t “exemplifying the basic Democratic principles.Said Berry: "I was kind of blindsided because I have run as a Democrat since 1995 and I have won 13 elections as a Democrat," DeBerry said. "... My views have always been conservative. The people in my district know this. And even though I've had opponents who have hammered me over and over about my stance on abortion, about my stance on the family and my stance on education, [voters] have overwhelmingly elected me 13 times."Berry will be running as an independent.
Lando Calrissian: Uniquely Individual
“Lando is not black or white, he's just Lando. Above and beyond the arguments or discussions of bygone eras, he is of the future....I love Lando! He is simply Lando Calrissian: swashbuckler, gambler, entrepreneur, and survivor. Handsome, interesting, romantic, iconic, and uniquely individual." -Billy Dee WilliamsQuoted in the introduction to Star Wars: Episode V – The Empire Strikes Back. New York: Marvel Comics. p. 4. comic book adaptation.
Reisman’s University Lectures on Capitalism Now Downloadable For Free
From George Reisman:Recently, a reader of my book Capitalism: A Treatise on Economics, told me that he believed that he had been able to get more out of my book and do it more easily because he had listened to a series of lectures I had delivered over the years 1967-2007.On the basis of my discussions with him, I’ve decided to release recordings of the lectures I delivered in my courses in my final year at Pepperdine University, 2004-05. These lectures are very closely related to my book, which was the main text for the courses.Try reading a chapter and then listening to the lectures related to it, or vice versa, whichever works best for you.There are two 4-unit courses, which, in order to follow convention, I labeled “micro” and “macro” respectively.Each of the courses had 13 sessions (not counting exams), typically recorded in two parts of more than an hour and a half each.The chapters in Capitalism assigned in the “micro” course are the Introduction, 1-11, and 14. The chapters assigned in the “macro” course are 12, 13, and 15-19. In both courses there are also some supplementary readings as well.All of the lectures are available on Google Drive and can be downloaded to your hard drive without charge. Here is the link.Consider these lectures as a work in progress in that I intend to make various revisions and additions over the next year or so.Downloads for the courses include a syllabus and eight detailed syllabus supplements that describe the content of each of the lectures.The book Capitalism: A Treatise on Economics is available on Amazon.com in Kindle, hardcover, and paperback formats. Go to here to order it.Download link for course.