Don't Newsletter on Me (1/19/21)
Articles from The Mises Institute, Curtis Yarvin, FFF, Sheldon Richman, Glenn Greenwald, Newsweek, Tom Woods, FEE, AntiWar.com, Reason, Intellectual Takeout, and Autoweek.
These are in no particular order.
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At my workplace, there's a forklift that we all call "The Libertarian"
The steering doesn't work properly, so whenever you try to use it, it immediately makes a hard right and breaks something important.
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Libertarian Paradise...
People often criticize a libertarian paradise saying that the homeless people would just be left to die in the gutter. This is of course complete bull. The gutter would be private property and the homeless will need to find somewhere else to die.
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The Capitol Riot Wasn’t a Coup. It Wasn't Even Close.
The Mises Institute
On Wednesday, a mob apparently composed of Trump supporters forced its way past US Capitol security guards and briefly moved unrestrained through much of the Capitol building. They displayed virtually no organization and no clear goals.
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But this wasn't a coup, and what happened on Wednesday is conceptually very different from a coup. Coups nearly always are acts committed by elites against the sitting executive power using the tools of the elites. This isn’t at all what happened on Wednesday.
The great coup of 2021
Curtis Yarvin
For those few of us who choose for some foolish reason to live in history, is the Great Coup a good thing or a bad thing? A blackpill or a whitepill?
Obviously, in the short term, it has added enormous energy to the power of the purge. It fits so perfectly with the whole narrative of the Trumpenreich; it creates enormous confidence upon leaving the theater. For at least the next couple of weeks, everyone with a BA and a Twitter account is Matthew Hopkins. Be careful!
Yet I think something beautiful, actually, has happened. The world has clarified itself. Though not in a way that anyone believes, or will soon believe, it has taken a genuine step into the mind of its own future, and the future of its own mind.
When you talk to the hypochondriacs, sooner or later they reveal that what they really care about is that the regime, which to them is holy—and a regime is, and always has been, a fundamentally holy thing—has been disrespected, even delegitimized.
Here Comes the Post-“Invasion” Crackdown
The Future of Freedom Foundation (FFF)
Why, some of these people are even alluding to such things as a “fascist” attempt to take over the government, a “putsch,” and the “Reichstag Fire.” And why not? They know that Hitler was able to use the terrorist firebombing of the Reichstag to get the Enabling Act passed, which gave him “temporary,” emergency, omnipotent, and tyrannical powers to enable him to protect “national security.”
That’s what Democrats and liberals are now doing. They are setting the stage for another civil-liberties crackdown, just like the one that they and Republicans and conservatives engaged in after the 9/11 attacks.
No Sacred Ground
Sheldon Richman
So, again, if we have to talk in such terms -- and really we don't -- Starbucks and the corner hardware store are more sacred than any government building, which was built with the proceeds from extortion, otherwise known as taxation.
How Silicon Valley, in a Show of Monopolistic Force, Destroyed Parler
Glenn Greenwald
In October, the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Antitrust, Commercial, and Administrative Law issued a 425-page report concluding that Amazon, Apple, Facebook and Google all possess monopoly power and are using that power anti-competitively.
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On Thursday, Parler was the most popular app in the United States. By Monday, three of the four Silicon Valley monopolies united to destroy it.
COVID Lockdowns Have No Clear Benefit vs Other Voluntary Measures, International Study Shows
Newsweek
"We do not question the role of all public health interventions, or of coordinated communications about the epidemic, but we fail to find an additional benefit of stay-at-home orders and business closures," the research added.
The efficacy of lockdown orders has been a hotly debated topic since the start of the pandemic.
Pretend this COVID chart doesn't exist, or get canceled
Tom Woods
Now I have another chart for you, this one illustrating media distortion.
Iowa and New Mexico had very similar curves, separated only by time.
In both places the curve went up sharply, and then came down steadily.
As the curve was going up in Iowa, The Atlantic ran the headline on the left. As the curve was coming down in New Mexico, Scientific American ran the headline on the right:
Lyft Drivers Have a Profound Understanding of Opportunity Cost
The Foundation for Economic Education (FEE)
But when you get a job with a ride-sharing service, the problem of opportunity costs becomes prescient. Sleep in on Saturday? You could be making money. Or: this extra sleep is costly. Drink an extra cocktail? It will take another 3 hours to sober up, during which time you will lose money that you could be earning by driving.
There’s Nothing Vegan About War
AntiWar.com
Veganism has been steadily on the rise for years, and with close to 10 million vegans in the US alone, it’s clear the plant-based movement is here to stay. As more and more people rethink their consumption of animal products, it is inevitable that the world’s military forces will increasingly use veganism to appear progressive, trendy, and virtuous. My plea to my fellow vegans: don’t fall for it. There is simply no room for war in ethical veganism. Commit fully to nonviolence – toward your fellow humans as well as animals.
Surviving Tech Purges: What We're Doing at the Mises Institute
The Mises Institute
But we will never water down our message to satisfy censors or maintain a particular platform; instead we will work around them. Our radical vision and message will not change. Society can manage itself, and organize around property, markets, and civil society rather than centralized monopoly governments. Real economics is the key to understanding real social cooperation. But we can't advocate ideas without channels to disseminate them. Let's hope we never need to come full circle, back to the analog world.
42 People Now Face Federal Charges for the Capitol Riot
Reason
And whatever facial recognition tech or other surveillance tools are approved in the wake of the Capitol attack will reach far beyond these particular circumstances, there for authorities to deploy against activists and dissidents of all types, any groups whose ideas those in (shifting) power find scary, sex workers, gun owners, and anyone engaged in harmless but disapproved-of activity.
LSD Could Be the Key to Alleviating the Mental Health Crisis—if Government Allows It
The Foundation for Economic Education (FEE)
So what makes LSD, and psychedelics in general, so special? Increasing evidence suggests that psychedelic medicines, such as LSD, MDMA, and psilocybin (the main psychoactive compound in magic mushrooms), can serve as a sort of “reset button” for the brain that gives individuals the tools they need to face and address their struggles in a constructive way.
Aid Groups Sound the Alarm Over Houthi Terror Designation
AntiWar.com
The US-backed Saudi-led war on Yemen has left Yemen’s civilian population almost completely reliant on aid. According to UN numbers, around 80 percent of Yemenis rely on aid, and 13.5 million people face acute food insecurity.
The terror designation will hamper the efforts of international charities that deliver food to Houthi-controlled areas, where 70 percent of Yemen’s population lives and malnutrition is the most widespread.
The Moral and Intellectual Collapse of America’s Political Parties
Intellectual Takeout
It is no longer news that 2020 saw a collapse of political discourse and public behavior in the United States. Trends that developed over many years intensified last year.
One major political party had as its candidate for president a magnetic figure who can also be nasty and lacking in verbal self-control. The other party featured someone blander and more petulant who also lacks verbal restraint.
Minimum Wage Hikes Kick in Across the Country—at the Worst Possible Time for Small Businesses
The Foundation for Economic Education (FEE)
Many of these same small businesses teetering on the brink of collapse are about to get slapped in the face with surging labor costs. A total of 20 states had minimum wage hikes take effect this month as part of scheduled ramp-ups.
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“A dramatic increase in the minimum wage even in good economic times has been shown to be harmful,” Employment Policy Institute Managing Director Michael Saltsman said. “In the current climate, for many employers it could be the final nail in the coffin.”
The Family Fades as Governments Subsidize Daycares and Nursing Homes
The Mises Institute
When I think of government-provided daycare, I think of difficult-to-fire DMV employees entrusted with dozens of strangers’ six-month-old babies.
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The decline of the family is caused in part by the state and in part by much deeper issues. Half of the solution is to work to end state subsidies for the replacement and dissolution of the family. The other half is to not wait for this to come about, but rather to fight now in our own lives and take care of those closest to us, despite the obstacles.
NHTSA Sounds Alarm over Risky Pandemic Driving
Autoweek
The situation has become bad enough to warrant an open letter to American drivers from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, which noted a median 22% increase in speeds in several metropolitan areas, and other disturbing trends such as dramatically decreased seatbelt use during the month of April 2020.
"Preliminary data tells us that during the national health emergency, fewer Americans drove but those who did took more risks and had more fatal crashes," the agency stated in part.
Mike
Bonus! In the last few weeks I have really tried to dive into the crypto space. To learn about it, and to start investing. If you have any tips or recourses please let me know!
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I found this crypto start up called Pi Network that lets you mine their currency from your phone just by clicking a button once every 24 hours. You can’t pull it out yet, and I don’t believe it has a dollar value currently, but it might eventually. It’s free and takes zero effort so why not give it a try. Here is their white paper.
In order to sign up, you have to use an invite code, so please go ahead and use mine. DontStatistOnMe
You can also find me on MeWe! Mike Lastname with the same doggo icon. Let me know in the comments if you can’t find me.
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