Category Archives: Libertarian

The respected libertarian Cato Institute annually releases their list of most free and least free states and no surprise, the bluest statesCalifornia includedare at the bottom of the list. Read more and check out their interactive map here: https://www.freedominthe50states.org/

From the report: The overall freedom ranking is a combination of personal and economic freedoms.

ANALYSISCalifornia is one of the least free states in the country, largely because of its long-standing poor performance on economic freedom. However, Californias economic freedom has improved since the late 2000s and, perhaps as a result, so has its economic performance. California has long suffered from a wide disparity between its economic freedom and personal freedom ranking, but it is not as if the state is a top performer in the latter dimension. Indeed, it is quite mediocre on personal freedom, although its recent decline in rank has more to do with other states catching up and passing it than any backsliding in the state itself.

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California NOT land of the free. Here's the proof - KABC

Much thought has clearly gone into Ghislaine Maxwells in-court look, currently showing at New Yorks Thurgood Marshall United States Courthouse.

Observers have noted her transformation from wretched to confident, shambling to sharp into a much glossier, demonstrative figure who hugs her lawyers and looks as if she might have sauntered in there by mistake. It has also been noted that she often wears her face mask beneath her nose.

Regardless of the symbolic peril, the slipping Maxwell mask appears, contrasted with firmer fitting examples around her, close to being styled. And for anti-maskers, the way Ms Maxwells mask has a tendency to hover uselessly around her upper lip may strike them as just what they would do if they were compelled to wear one, but wanted to signal libertarian contempt. For the mask-compliant, the sight will be less appealing. Are her lawyers confident that Maxwells masked jury, which had to be certified free of anti-super-rich prejudice, is similarly relaxed on visible disregard for civic feeling?

If the aim is simply to allow the court to capture as much Maxwell defiance as possible, these glimpses could come at a substantial cost in Trumpian, sociopathic or other associations. Even before academics identified a connection between anti-mask attitudes and the dark triad of personality traits (narcissism, Machiavellianism and psychopathy), research confirmed the depth of the divide between those who do and those who do not conform with pandemic restrictions. In the UK, a 2020 Demos study showed the polarisation to be far more bitter than for Brexit, with the majority who did not break lockdown rules saying they hate, resent or think lockdown rule breakers are bad people. On masks, more than half of British wearers had severely negative attitudes about non-wearers.

Given this scale of disapproval, and additional figures showing that 80% of people supported mask wearing after freedom day, the enduring mask hostility among Tory MPs suggests problems beyond the irresponsibility and selfishness that informed Get Brexit Done. What possessed the 23 MPs, not all of them nonentities, who last week voted against introduction of a government measure intended to preserve, if not life, then Christmas? Of the 23, all but three were men; 20 were Conservative and three DUP. All but one were Brexiters, so no strangers to self-harm. But Brexit supporters may still be dying-averse. In contrast to the US, mask-wearing is not much, outside Westminster, of a political signal. A majority of Leave voters wanted, for instance, to keep masks compulsory on public transport.

While it wins them a treasured place on the anti-mask team that includes Piers Corbyn, Nigel Farage, Radio 4s death-defying libertarian Jonathan Sumption and a host of Spectator belligerents, some of last weeks Conservative rebels might still have considered how their show of resistance strikes civilians who dont have a choice. The same goes for the prime minister, whose public mask aversion is such that he cannot, even while touring a hospital, tie nestling virtuously against his belly, bring himself to wear one. Nor could the proximity of David Attenborough at Cop26 persuade him. Though, since Johnson once planned to visit the Queen from the No 10 plague pit, it was probably nothing personal: being a nonagenarian offers no protection against the worlds most prominent now Trump has gone Covid vector.

Plainly, for a vain exhibitionist being trailed around the country by his official photographer, the cost of face-covering will be higher for the prime minister than for a civilian. But the opposite also applies: on his avoidance of masks alone, even if nothing else were known about him, Johnsons unfitness for office would be confirmed. Questions are being asked about his Christmas parties, when nobody else was allowed them. But why would a person who splutters publicly in nurses faces worry about Christmas party guidelines?

High among the unexpected, non-health compensations of masks is their value as shorthand. At the same time as they impede communication, they offer, anywhere that people exhibit extreme non-compliance, a rapid non-verbal personality indicator that is rivalled only, I would argue, by manspreading. Of course there are many other single but baleful inducements to run for the hills personalised number plates, not tipping, devotion to the works of Ayn Rand or Judith Butler but these may take time to discover or may even, on rare occasions, be redeemable.

Mask aversion once fell, just about, into that category. Last summer, anti-maskers could argue that they preferred the previous official guidance. Jenny Harries, now head of the UK Health Security Agency, had indeed treated the worlds mask-wearing nations to her superior, anti-mask theory in March 2020. You can actually trap the virus in the mask and start breathing it in, she said. Incredibly, or perhaps as a result if Johnson was involved, she was promoted.

As evidence has mounted to back mask efficacy, Johnson, even with this stimulus to lead by example, has treated masks as if they were a lefty plot against his face. A masked audience watching Macbeth recently noticed that the prime minister, squished into a crowded little theatre, preferred to follow the on-stage psychopathy with his face uncovered. In doing so, he perhaps revealed more about himself than idiot contrariness. Low compliance with containment measures was directly associated in one study with antisocial traits, especially lower levels of empathy and higher levels of callousness, deceitfulness and risk-taking. Though its too late to save us from Johnson, the psychology of mask behaviour might help to screen out another leader who shouts, when discouraged: Let the bodies pile high in their thousands.

Meanwhile, we may be getting closer to understanding the MPs who last week voted, in defiance of scientific advice and majority opinion, against protecting public health. Werent they once great respecters of majorities, even narrow ones? But its pointless to expect logic. Like the Macbeths, they simply couldnt help themselves.

Catherine Bennett is an Observer columnist

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Refusal to wear a mask says more about you than your face ever could - The Guardian

I wholeheartedly agree with Larry Penners opinion piece about the consequences of us becoming a debtor nation, the same way I agree with the authors opinion piece from ten years ago when he had his written tete-a-tete with then-Congressman Gary Ackerman on these very pages.But..The author makes suggestions about how leading Dems Biden, Schumer, Pelosi, and friends should show their faith in the bill.

But the author, who appears to lean Republican/Libertarian in his political opinions, neglects to mention that some Democrats voted against the bill and some Republicans for it.

Doesnt the author care enough about his opinion pieces to stop telling half-truths and tell the entire story?

The author is entitled to his opinion and is entitled to express his opinion. He should not omits facts inconvenient to his opinion.

The inference is the Democrats are bad and the Republicans are good when the truth lies in the middle. Let me add that at almost 60 years old I have never been a registered Democrat. Ive been Republican, Independence, Blank, and Conservative. Every enrollment except Blank has been affiliated with Republicans.

Nat Weiner

Bronx

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Readers Write: TANSTAAFL - For donkeys and elephants - Readers Write - The Island Now

As you preside over the bewildering and nonsensical inconsistency of mask-wearing in schools, I thought I might distract you with another matter of great importance: the behaviour of Ofsted inspectors.

As all of us involved in schools in England know, we work in a territory policed by a triumvirate: Ofsted, the league tables and the Sats results. There are no Covid-like press conferences where representatives of these three stand at lecterns being quizzed by journalists. Why not? After all, at key moments in the year (like GCSE Handwringing Day or International Performance Comparison and Sneering Day) education in schools is presented as if it were a pandemic of decline.

Perhaps we are supposed to believe that the three parts of the triumvirate work independently of each other, doing good, in the manner of Oxfam, Christian Aid and Children in Need, though with you at the helm. But if you had wanted to invent a set-up that was as undemocratic as possible and as unrepresentative of the people working in it, youd be hard pushed to beat it.

Right now Ofsted is causing particular concern. Did you see last weeks Guardian article, I cant go through it again: headteachers quit over brutal Ofsted inspections, and the readers letters that followed? If you missed them, please take a look. They paint a picture of a profession in distress. Headteachers say Ofsted inspectors are refusing to take into account the effects of Covid on schools. The head of Lancaster Royal grammar school, Dr Chris Pyle, says that some recent Ofsted reports exclude all specific references to the pandemic.

As Id hope you would acknowledge, the impact of the illness itself, the absences, the casualties, the lockdown and the online teaching has been a trauma felt acutely by school communities. Of what benefit can it be for Ofsted to turn up at a school and trample over people who have experienced such high stress and, in some cases, loss and bereavement?

The fact is this high-handed approach is bred by the structure and terms of reference of Ofsted. The idea that a judge, prosecution and jury arrive one day at a school, at short notice, conduct a trial and then leave is a poor way to run education. In my school visits these days, I also rush in and out though usually I give them a bit more notice of my arrival! But Im not inspecting teachers, Im doing that very non-Ofsteddy thing of coming in to support teachers and pupils. While Im there, I often hear from teachers about Ofsted visits. The one theme I hear over and over again is that they feel the inspectors were not sympathetic to the specific conditions of the school. Its as if inspectors come briefed with a notion that teachers are bad people making excuses for their own incompetence. So the report that some inspectors dont want to hear about the experience of Covid came as no surprise to me.

One headteacher told me an Ofsted inspector complained that the Year 6 results were showing a significant decline. The headteacher pointed out that the dip in scores coincided with the sudden arrival of a cohort of refugee children, none of whom spoke English. In other words, the composition of the class had changed between one set of scores and the next. Though the refugee children had made huge advances in the few months they had been here, the effect on the data was that the scores were low in an absolute sense. What did the inspector say to the headteacher? That it was no excuse. In Ofsteds world, data can exist independently of the people being measured. Please, Mr Zahawi, listen to the teachers and headteachers in the Guardian article and the letters. The system is not benefiting teachers, pupils or families, and its all predicated on the idea that the only way to improve education is through top-down hectoring.

How interesting to see that your government is trying to cope with Covid by encouraging people to choose the right path, whether that be the wearing of masks, getting vaccinated or holding parties. This approach is much preferred, Ive heard ministers saying on the radio, to making such measures compulsory. And yet when it comes to education, you and your colleagues drop this libertarian approach and opt for the big stick. Tell us: why should education be excluded from your libertarian methods?

We really do have to make our minds up whether we think education should be about consent or coercion. Here we are, in the midst of two crises threatening humanity: disease and climate change, and the best we can come up with for schools is the authoritarian triumvirate. Does it ever give you pause for thought that a coercive system might not be the best way to foster creative and questioning minds, the kind of minds we desperately need to solve humanitys problems?

Yours, Michael Rosen

Continued here:

Dear Nadhim Zahawi, please sort out Ofsteds lack of humanity. Theres no excuse - The Guardian

WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) A year after suffering a huge election loss, New Zealand's conservative opposition leader Judith Collins was ousted Thursday by her caucus.

Collins was in the role for a tumultuous 16 months. She never polled well as leader of the National Party, even after liberal Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern's popularity began to fade somewhat in recent months as a coronavirus outbreak took hold in Auckland.

Rumors about a possible move against Collins had been circulating for weeks. But she ended up making the first move on Wednesday night by stripping former leader and potential rival Simon Bridges of his portfolios.

Collins said she made the move because she had found out for the first time that Bridges made inappropriate comments to female colleague Jacqui Dean about five years ago at a function.

But other National Party lawmakers weren't impressed with the move by Collins, pointing out that Bridges had apologized at the time.

The new National Party leader will be chosen next week. Possible contenders include Bridges, former Air New Zealand chief executive Christopher Luxon and former police officer Mark Mitchell. Collins plans to stay on in Parliament as a lawmaker representing the Auckland district of Papakura.

Collins said it had required stamina and resolve to take on the leadership during the worst of times.

I knew when I was confided in by a female colleague regarding her allegation of serious misconduct against a senior colleague, that I would likely lose the leadership by taking the matter so seriously, Collins wrote on Twitter. If I hadnt, then I felt that I wouldnt deserve the role.

Dean said that Bridges apologized at the time but the incident "continued to play on my mind.

Ardern last year won a second term in a landslide of historic proportions. The popularity of her Labour Party has slipped since then, but most of the gains have gone to the libertarian ACT Party, while Collins and the National Party have continued to languish in opinion polls.

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New Zealand opposition leader Collins ousted by caucus - Plainview Daily Herald

With the release of Tiger King 2 on Netflix this month and a subsequent lawsuit from that woman Carol Baskin, Joe Exotic is back in the 24-minute news cycle. Im not sure he ever left, despite being incarcerated in federal prison after a 2020 conviction of attempted murder-for-hire and violations of animal welfare laws.

I somewhat famously interviewed Joe Exotic in September 2016 when he had been kicked out of a Donald Trump fundraiser at the home of Hunter Miller, Barry Switzers son-in-law.

A year and a half later, I conducted another Joe Exotic interview at the State Capitol on April 11, 2018, near the end of the teacher walkout. Moments before the interview, Exotic had filed to run for governor as a Libertarian, so I asked his thoughts on the historic revenue-raising bill passed just prior to the walkout by the Oklahoma Legislature. (Joe Exotics answer was similar to then-candidate Kevin Stitts.)

I also asked Joe Exotic whether he was still mad at President Donald Trump, a question that evoked a pretty good one-liner from Oklahomas favorited mulleted maniac. Its too bad I didnt remember I had this recording when he and his advocates were asking Trump to pardon him last year. Fortunately, Joe recently wrote a letter calling Trump a fool for not pardoning him.

So with Joe Exotic once again back in the public eye, what better time could there be to empty my digital notebook into the trashcan of the internet?

You can read a transcription of this Joe Exotic interview below, or you can listen to the 83-second recording, if you want to hear what a human Pall Mall sounds like.

Tres Savage: Im guessing you recorded a video in front of a bunch of tigers talking about this, but whats your feeling on the teacher walkout?

Joe Exotic: You know, I support the teachers 100 percent, because the educational system in this state has got to be improved. But we aint got to raise taxes to do that, and one thing that Im against is they raised [the tax on diesel by six cents], and it just costs our own school buses $1.2 million, approximately. Theyre robbing Peter to pay Paul. And the smartest thing Ive seen, at least this morning, is theyre considering consolidating superintendents, and thats where most of our money needs to come from. But instead of taxing people, Id like to see us go back to vehicle inspections.

Tres Savage: If youd have been governor, would you have signed the revenue bill that they passed?

Joe Exotic: No.

Tres Savage: You wouldnt have signed it? You would have vetoed it?

Joe Exotic: No. I wouldve vetoed the whole thing.

Tres Savage: Anything else? Whats the message around the state coming to you?

Joe Exotic: Well, we got to hold people accountable, OK? Especially departments like the health department.

Tres Savage: You still mad at Donald Trump?

Joe Exotic: Am I mad at Donald Trump?

Tres Savage: Yeah, you got thrown out of his fundraiser. Thats the second-most viewed video weve ever gotten on our YouTube page.

Joe Exotic: Donald Trumps got some issues. I think instead of draining the swamp, he filled it full of millionaires. But were gonna fix Oklahoma for the people, for a change.

Tres Savage: I appreciate it.

Joe Exotic: Thank you, sir.

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The unearthed Joe Exotic interview about Donald Trump, Oklahoma's teacher walkout - NonDoc

WWE Hall Of Famer Kane was recently a guest on The Doug Collins Podcast where he spoke about his decision to start a career in politics. The former World Champion admitted he could see he was losing a step inside the ring.

As my wrestling career was starting to wind down and I could see that I was getting older and starting to lose a step. I knew that I needed to do something else in my life, Kande admitted. I had always been interested in politics and government. Mainly, my philosophy is very Conservative-Libertarian. My interest was keeping the government off my back.

One of the big things that wrestlers have to deal with is being away from home for large periods of time. That was the case throughout Kanes career and he spoke about that, admitting that his wife did everything and he believes you need a strong partner.

Crystal raised the kids and she also worked and did everything, he admitted. Its really because of her. I dont think its possible to do that if you dont have a strong partner. Not everybody is built for that, frankly, and that is okay. It is what it is.

I think you just have to understand the dynamics in your personal relationship, or in your marriage if thats the case. I was able to do it because Crystal could just do it, Kane said. She had actually been a single mom before we got married. Probably nine years, or so. So, she was used to that anyway. But its always hard. On our side of things, we miss all the good stuff. We miss the birthday parties and the holidays and the basketball games and thats whats really difficult.

If you use any quotes from this article please credit The Doug Collins Podcast with a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.

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Kane Reflects On Decision He Made When WWE Career Was Winding Down - Wrestling Inc.

An employee holds up cannabis in the laboratory at the headquarters of herbal medicines manufacturer Bionorica in Neumarkt, Germany February 9, 2018. REUTERS/Michaela Rehle

BERLIN, Nov 16 (Reuters) - Legalising cannabis could bring Germany annual tax revenues and cost savings of about 4.7 billion euros ($5.34 billion) and create 27,000 new jobs, a survey said on Tuesday as politicians thrash out rules for the budding sector.

Chancellor-in-waiting Olaf Scholz and his centre-left Social Democrats (SPD) are in talks with the environmentalist, pro-spending Greens and the libertarian, business-friendly Free Democrats (FDP) to build a three-way coalition.

Negotiators for the SPD, Greens and FDP are still working out details of their coalition deal, including rules under which the sale and use of recreational cannabis would be allowed and regulated in Europe's largest economy.

The survey by the Institute for Competition Economics (DICE) at the Heinrich Heine University in Duesseldorf, and commissioned by the German hemp association, found that legalising cannabis could lead to additional tax revenues of about 3.4 billion euros per year.

At the same time, it could bring cost savings in the police and judicial system of 1.3 billion euros per year while creating tens of thousands of jobs in the cannabis economy.

Legalising cannabis in Germany would give a boost to a ballooning European market that is expected to be worth more than 3 billion euros in annual revenue by 2025, up from about 400 million euros this year, according to the European Cannabis Report by research firm Prohibition Partners.

The use of cannabis for medicinal purposes has been legal in Germany since 2017.

($1 = 0.8804 euros)

Reporting by Michael Nienaber; Editing by Miranda Murray and Pravin Char

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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Pot of gold? Cannabis could bring Germany $5 billion a year - survey - Reuters

More Hollywood celebrities with no political pedigrees are floating their names as potential state and federal candidates, with former President Donald Trump having single-handedly obliterated what was once an expectation for candidates to have political experience before running for higher office.

On Wednesday, radio icon Howard Stern, known for hosting Sirius XM's "The Howard Stern Show," suggested in a broadcast that it was his "civic duty" to run for president in 2024 if Trump does.

"If Trump decides to run again, you have to run against him," said Robin Quivers, Stern's co-host.

"I know. I'll beat his ass," Stern responded, claiming that he'd play the audio tape of Trump asking Georgia's secretary of state to "find" enough votes to overturn the election.

RELATED: Georgia investigating Trump call pressuring secretary of state to "find" votes, overturn election

"I would just sit there and play that fucking clip of him trying to fix the election over and over again," the radio host added.

In January, Stern, a member of the Libertarian Party, said that he wouldn't have enough energy to run for president considering his age, 67.

"It's going to create some heavy lifting," he said at the time, according to The New York Daily News. "At this point in my life, I'm too tired to do that kind of heavy lifting. We need some young energetic people who care about their country."

Back in 1994, Stern cast a bid for New York governor against Democrat Mario Cuomo, but withdrew several months into his campaign.

Want a daily wrap-up of all the news and commentary Salon has to offer? Subscribe to our morning newsletter, Crash Course.

Another aspiring celebrity-turned-politician is TV host Dr. Mehmet Oz, who, according to a Tuesday report by The Washington Free Beacon, has begun hiring staff and reaching out to campaign allies for a U.S. Senate bid in Pennsylvania.

Oz, a cardiothoracic surgeon and onetime informal Trump COVID-19 adviser who has used his show to promote a number ofunproven treatments over the years, is apparently a registered New Jersey voter but has "deep ties" to Pennsylvania referring to his time at the University of Pennsylvania to study both medicine and business.

"Since last year, Dr. Oz has lived and voted in Pennsylvania where he attended school and has deep family ties," an Oz spokesman told the Free Beacon. "Dr. Oz has received encouragement to run for the U.S. Senate, but is currently focused on our show and has no announcement at this time."

RELATED: Trump tells health officials to ask "quack" Fox News guest Dr. Oz for advice on coronavirus: report

Last year, toward the beginning of the pandemic, Oz said in a Fox News interview that school re-openings "may only cost us 2 to 3 percent in terms of total mortality" a "trade-off some folks would consider." He has also promoted the use of hydroxychloroquine at one point a "miracle drug" promoted by Trump to treat COVID-19. According to a 2014 study firstreported by The Washington Post, roughly half of Oz's medical advice is either "baseless or wrong."

Meanwhile, in Texas, Academy Award winner Matthew McConaughey has floated the idea of a potential gubernatorial campaign, first announced back in March of this year. McConaughey told reporters on multiple occasions that he's interested in running, despite his lack of political experience. According to Forbes, the actor has reportedly not voted since 2012 and has no political donation records.

RELATED: Matthew McConaughey is flirting with a run for governor. But his politics remain a mystery

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Star power: More celebrities are lining up to run for office after Trump showed they can win - Salon

* Taxing wealth can combat disparities, says renowned economist

* Private sector ESG push not a cure-all

* Social inclusion standards out of reach for much of world

By David Sherfinski

WASHINGTON, Nov 17 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - The challenge of combatting inequality will increase as workers compete with advances in technology, economist Jeffrey D. Sachs warned on Wednesday, calling for robust government intervention.

Private enterprise alone cannot be counted on to fix glaring disparities in wealth, said Sachs, who advocated levying taxes on wealth and private companies to ensure "social inclusion for all."

"The challenges will get worse in the future because technology will continue to replace jobs, will continue to limit opportunities for those who do not have a college education," he said.

"And that means working-class families that cannot afford a college education for their children."

The director of the Center for Sustainable Development at Columbia University in New York was speaking on the first day of Trust Conference, the Thomson Reuters Foundation's annual flagship event.

"If the rich act with impunity and can amass even fortunes of tens or hundreds of billions of dollars and not pay taxes along the way, well then, you can't have social inclusion," said Sachs, who has advised three United Nations secretaries-general.

"These divisions are going to widen unless we get a grip on public policy to ensure that there is inclusion."

Parts of northern Europe are "pretty close" to a standard of social inclusion where almost everybody has access to key social safety programs like healthcare, child care and paid leave, but much of the world is not, he said.

"The battle is in countries like the United States with these libertarian, let the rich keep anything they want, let politics be oriented towards the rich philosophy."

Much of President Joe Biden's domestic agenda, which includes an expanded social safety net, is currently bogged down in the U.S. Congress.

Sachs said the recent focus on environmental, social, and governance (ESG) principles in the private sector, while worthwhile, can only go so far.

"Social inclusion and decent work is not merely a matter of what happens in an enterprise, though that's very important and worker representation is extremely crucial," he said.

"It's also a matter of what happens in society at large, in broad public policy, in budgets and that's where the struggle is."

"We must tax wealth and tax the rich and tax the companies so that we have the chance to ensure social inclusion for all."

Sachs is also president of the U.N. Sustainable Development Solutions Network, which works to promote the U.N.'s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) a set of goals that includes aspirations to cut poverty and promote equality.

He said for lower-income countries, key tenets of those goals - like access to healthcare and education - need financial support.

"We know that these goals ... are absolutely unachievable unless there is also a financial system globally that enables the poor(er) countries to have the fiscal space to be able to provide these basic services," he said. (Reporting by David Sherfinski. Editing by Claire Cozens. Please credit the Thomson Reuters Foundation, the charitable arm of Thomson Reuters, that covers the lives of people around the world who struggle to live freely or fairly. Visit http://news.trust.org)

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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Tax the rich to help promote social inclusion, says Jeffrey ... - Thomson Reuters Foundation