LIBERTARIANS' LISTENIN' POST

[CCarl]

Hey, Libertarians, Where Is Your Voice on Immigration?

Doesn't the Wall prevent immigrants from the same opportunities Americans have?

Doesn't a Wall to keep them out violate the NAP?

With the exception of Native Americans, ALL our families have been immigrants to this country the past 417 years! And YES, some of our ancestors failed to check in when they arrived!

Are we not better off building longer tables rather than building higher walls? No, I did not say to build those tables with tax dollars.

We build with sweat, toil, and desire to help. And we SHARE. Isn't that the Libertarian Way? Isn't that the Human Way? Then why isn't it the American Way Today??

Hold Washington D.C. Accountable.

[CCarl]

Changin' Society's Regression

Today, our communities, Elk County, all 50 States, our country, and the world are full of this regressive sequence;
Fear > Control > Structure > Debt > Obedience > Slavery.

The response to that by individuals and communities should be this progression in all directions & situations;
Love > No Coercion > Private Property > Free Markets > Voluntaryism > Free Will.

[CCarl]

Woods' Law

No matter whom you vote for, you always end up with John McCain.

Thanks Tom . . . . LOL

[CCarl]

David Stockman Sounds A Bit Libertarian!!

"Donald Trump doesn't give two hoots about the true agenda that might actually make America freer and more prosperous again. We are referring to the principles of . . . .
   1) peaceful commerce with every nation, entangling alliances with none,
   2) minimalist, solvent, constitutional government at home,
   3) sound money and market-driven interest rates and asset prices,
   4) maximum scope for personal liberty and free market, and
   5) decentralized, Federalist arrangements for any necessary functions of the state."

Well, except for #5. When humanity has 1 through 4, the STATE NO LONGER HAS ANY NECESSARY FUNCTIONS!! And the quickest, and probably only, way to get the first four is to eliminate #5!!

[CCarl]

Here Are a Few of Rothbard's One-Liners

All services provided by the 'monopoly system of the corporate state' could be provided more efficiently by the private sector;

The state is 'the organization of robbery systematized and writ large';

He called fractional-reserve banking a form of fraud, he opposed central banking; and,

He opposed all military, political, and economic intervention in the affairs of other nations.


Who says all that today, beside Rand Paul, Mike Lee, and Tom Massie?

Anyone from Kansas?  Anyone?

[CCarl]

He "Knew There Was Rot In The System, But . . "

https://www.zerohedge.com/political/ed-dowd-fears-short-deep-recession-coming-doge-exposes-mind-shocking-fraud-propped-bidens

Are these over-educated 'experts' ever going to get it? Or are they all on the take, making money for rehearsed statements of shock and awe for the public?

What is mind-shocking fraud to Ed is obvious & intuitive to Libertarians. Similarly, Libertarians advocate a single solution. Our slogan, among several, is 'No State'. It is prime time for that slogan to manifest, because Ed's short recession is bound to be a State-caused depression.

Our first step is to rid ourselves of the mob that controls Washington D.C. Voting the mob out will never happen, just witness the 2024 election. The other legal approach is to organize a Convention of States [COS]. Time to get busy with our state legislatures. Thirty-four states are needed to 'make the call'. Don't worry, an open convention floor will occur, regardless of the strict agendas and control that may have been intended. Secession will come, and before the convention ends D.C. will be done. See the COS here;  https://conventionofstates.com/

Yes, kicking the mob out can lawfully happen. The Declaration of Independence starts by asserting our inherent Right to do so; "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it . . . "

Then it will be time to turn to our individual States, and end the social control, the economic fraud, and the malevolence of the police state that are in ALL our backyards.

States will react differently. We must expect some of them, maybe even half or more, when faced with Freedom, to shrink back into the Fear > Control > Obedience mode, then coalesce into mini-united-states. Most of those will probably adopt the draconian Lincoln-ite model of democracy, and desire participation in the United Nations.

But, libertarians can manage to lead some of our States into a confederacy, modeled along the lines of the 1777 Articles of Confederation. That alone will be a huge improvement over the status quo, and a step toward real Freedom. There will be no entangling alliances with this group of States.

A few States will be bold, and accept the task of Freedom head-on. They will become autonomous nation-states, and no doubt end up with minimal governance and maximum Freedom. Yes, we can expect to see Libertarian societies evolve from D.C.'s pile of rubble.

The process of the COS will also provide autonomy to every Native Nation in the USA today. They should react similarly to the States, with some tribes seeking strength in federations, and some choosing autonomy. They all should realize the common ground they share is Mother Earth, and the common plague they have escaped is Uncle Sam.

What comes of all this? Diversity does. Diverse social organizations, diverse currencies, balanced and still unbalanced budgets, a return to respect of Natural Rights (although a few new nation-states will restrict them), and free access to the market place with products, labor, and ideas. The list of diversity is nearly endless, given the generations that humanity has struggled and strangled under the 'one ring that binds us all'.

But the greatest gift of that evolving diversity is Opportunity, i.e., the freedom for all individuals and families to explore that diversity, chase their dreams and desires, realize their goals, and express their Free Will. There will not be any hand-outs in libertarian countrysides, but if trouble comes to our doors, we can expect neighbors' hands to reach out. That is the Libertarian way, and it starts by lawfully ending the State.

[CCarl]

Foundational Principle of Society

"America's founding ideal was the principle of individual rights. Nothing more - and nothing less. The rest - everything that America achieved, everything she became, everything 'noble and just,' and heroic, and great, and unprecedented in human history - was the logical consequence of fidelity to that one principle."
- Ayn Rand (1905-1982)

I do not know when she first spoke or wrote that quote. But note that it is in the past tense. She considered the essential virtue of America gone during her lifetime.

It is never too late to return to an understanding of Inalienable Rights. It is past time to refocus on them.

[CCarl]

Making Libertarianism Philosophical, Not Political

Our Libertarian Party was formed fifty-four years ago, then held its first convention in 1972. Those early events quickly evolved into a Party focused around these principles; self-rule, non-aggression, private property, voluntary interaction, and no State. In a word the principle was, and still is, Liberty.

Since the Party's formative days, the Beltway Libbers and most of the academic libbers have managed to subdivide the philosophy and political theory into at least thirty subsets, each one apparently in contrast to some degree with those five fundamental principles. If people want to believe a rag like wikipedia, here is the list of currently acceptable libertarian factions: agorism, anarcho-capitalism, autarchism, bleeding-heart libertarianism, christian libertarianism, civil libertarianism, classical liberalism, consequentialist libertarianism, crypto-anarchism, deontological libertarianism, free-market anarchism, geolibertarianism, green libertarianism, individualist anarchism, laissez-faire, left-wing market anarchism, liberalism, liberism, libertarian Christianity, libertarian conservatism, libertarian paternalism, libertarian transhumanism, market liberalism, market socialism, minarchism, paleolibertarianism, panarchism, philosophical anarchism, propertarianism, right-libertarianism, social libertarianism, and voluntaryism.

Really? Is it any wonder the Party has fragmented and lost its way? Is it any wonder the 2024 Party platform was not much more than support of the LBGTQ+ crowd that garnered the Party less publicity and votes than it has had since Ron Paul wore his Libertarian cap into the Republican Party in 2008?

A return to fundamentals is necessary. Rather than turning to well known proponents like Mises Institute, LRC, Tom Woods, Walter Block, et. al., let's look at someone that does NOT define and debate the minutiae of all those factions. Richard Maybury is an investment advisor who studies geopolitics, then provides recommendations for investment opportunities around the world. He has distilled the move to Liberty into sixteen words; "Do all you have agreed to do", and "Do not encroach on other persons, or their property." Maybury describes those words as the 'human ethics needed to make civilization possible'. Nice. Concise. Precise. Perfect advice.

Pretty much a fundamental Libertarian, huh? He certainly gets to the heart of the libertarian ethos with those words, IMO. And he does so without any academic effeteness. I would love to hear a conversation with him about when, where, and with whom each of us has made an agreement. Just what does that "do all you have agreed to do" imply? The concept suggests that all of us come here with a purpose. IMO, that says each of us has had an understanding of the human experience we are now living before our physical birth. Our purpose is apparently unique to each of us, and the paths we travel in life can be seen as a series of experiences that realize that purpose, a fulfillment of Free Will, if you will.

Maybury's credo says equally important to my purpose is your purpose. So while I need a life experience that is free to grow, question, pursue desires and goals, and accumulate what degree of wealth I want, I must also allow you the same opportunity for your growth, questioning, desires, goals, and wealth. And you must reciprocate. The Founding Fathers of the these united States called that experience the Pursuit of Happiness in the Preamble to the Declaration of Independence.

By wealth I do not ONLY mean the accumulation of money or other financial gains. I tie wealth to our purpose in this life. IMO, wealth is fulfilling that purpose. Yes, it may be materialistic or financial, but it may also be knowledge, children, personal interactions, love, and many more. For all of us to realize our purpose and achieve that wealth, we cannot be coercive of others. Aggression toward others and forced obedience of others are counterproductive to this credo. We do not succeed by subjugating others or demanding their obedience, no matter how trivial the demand may seem.

What typifies the communities and societies that form from this credo are non-aggression, voluntary interactions, self-responsibility, self-rule, wealth creation, and subsequently, no need for the State. And there, IMO, is the consensus of the Signers of the Declaration of Independence. We can live our pursuit of happiness, and Maybury's credo, by self-rule with no need for politics. Our Libertarian philosophy is just that, and it is antithetical to politics because politics leads to the State, and the State demands obedience, not creative expression.

[CCarl]

130 Unlawful Executive Orders In Under 100 Days . . And Counting

"We are fast approaching the stage of the ultimate inversion: the stage where the government is free to do anything it pleases, while the citizens may act only by permission; which is the stage of the darkest periods of human history, the stage of rule by brute force." — Ayn Rand

Read John Whitehead's full commentary here;   https://www.rutherford.org/publications_resources/john_whiteheads_commentary/how_a_president_becomes_a_dictator_by_executive_order

130 executive orders in under 100 days.
Sweeping powers claimed in the name of "security" and "efficiency."
One President acting as lawmaker, enforcer, and judge.
No debate. No oversight. No limits.

This is how the Constitution dies—not with a coup, but with a pen. The Unitary Executive Theory is no longer a theory—it's the architecture of a dictatorship in motion.

Where past Presidents have used executive orders, decrees, memorandums, proclamations, national security directives and legislative signing statements to circumvent Congress or sidestep the rule of law, President Trump is using executive orders to advance his "unitary executive theory" of governance, which is a thinly disguised excuse for a government by fiat. In other words, these executive orders are the mechanism by which we finally arrive at a full-blown dictatorship.

We are at Ayn Rand's rule by brute force.

[CCarl]

We Can't Just Stay As We Are

Here is the opening statement from Chapter 15 of the 1970 publication The Market for Liberty, by M. & L. Tannehill. It was republished by the Mises Institute in 2007, and may be available at the Institute's website. Underlines are by the poster.

"The prospect of real freedom in a laissez-faire society is a dazzling one, but how can such a society ever be brought about?! Through the decades, government has silently grown and spread, thrusting insidious, intertwining tentacles into nearly every area of our lives. Our society is now so thoroughly penetrated by government bureaucracy, and our economy so entangled in government controls, that the dissolution of the State would cause major and painful temporary dislocations. The problems of adjusting to a laissez-faire society are somewhat like those facing an alcoholic or heroin addict who is thinking of kicking the habit, and the difficulties and discomforts involved may make some people decide that they'd be better off just staying as they are.

It is naive, however, to assume that we can "just stay as we are." America, and most of the rest of the world, is caught in a wave of economic decay and social upheaval which nothing can stop. After decades of governmental "fine tuning," our economy is now so distorted and crippled that we have a tremendous and ever growing class of hopeless and desperate poor. These poor and dispossessed feel a very well-justified (if usually misdirected) resentment which they express in demonstrations and riots. Governmental attempts to aid them, even if such attempts could be free of bureaucratic pork-barreling and pocket-lining, merely make the situation worse. After all, government can only get its "aid" money by bleeding it from our already sick economy, thereby weakening the economy still further, and creating more poor to be aided. As the poor see their lives becoming increasingly miserable in spite of all the political promises of help, their resentment must grow more violent.

Meanwhile, the bureaucrats' attempts to save an economy dying of governmental controls by imposing more and more controls are pushing us swiftly down the path of financial ruin. If they aren't stopped in their frantic efforts to cure our collectivist poisoning by forcing us to swallow more collectivism, they will sooner or later push us over the brink into total economic collapse, the kind of collapse where government money loses all its value and people starve to death in the streets.

The choice is not laissez-faire vs. the status quo, because we cannot possibly keep the status quo anyway. Tremendous socio-economic forces, set in motion long ago by governmental plundering and power-grabbing, are sweeping the present order out from under our feet. We can only choose whether we will allow ourselves to be pushed into economic chaos and political tyranny, or whether we will resist the bureaucratic tyrants and looters and work to set up a free society where each man and woman can live his/her own life and 'do his/her own thing'."

Now, that was absolute conspiracy theory in 1970, well before the term conspiracy theory was being used!! About the time this paper was originally published, the military draft board offered me the "choice" of serving in federal prison, or serving in the military. Had I read this paper then, I would have appreciated the writers' angst from the regulatory coercion being imposed on me. But I would have seriously doubted a total economic decay was inevitable. Life seemed pretty good economically. Regular gasoline was about $0.21 per gallon, a dozen eggs might have been $0.36, and a loaf of bread about the same. I picked apples and cherries that year in a nearby orchard for $0.12 a pound.

Times have changed quite a bit, making this paper sound prophetic. Those underlined statements above are now discussed weekly on most news sites. Economic statistics of debt, deficit, unemployment, tariffs, taxes, and costs of living today are proving the authors' points. Grab a copy of the entire publication to find out just what indicators and changes pointed them so clearly to our present situation. Finish reading Chapter 15 to see just how they recommend we move away from the collective that is destroying us.