Author: Thaddeus Preston (Nick Waye)

I have been spending my morning reading the tech press and came across this article this morning that shows how ignorant, entitled and ideologically stupid they have become. AT&T now offers an unlimited data plan (some restrictions apply) to post pay customers (Pre-paid customers).  Leave it to the Highly Leftist tech press to complain about what is being offered: The author sniveling complaint about the plan read like a typical millennial brat:  

“The plan costs $60 per month and does technically include unlimited data. But AT&T won’t let subscribers get fast speeds, capping the plan at 3Mbps.”

How about we get some GODDAMN perspective.  10 years ago I paid the same amount for a sub par DSL line with the same speed (It really sucked by the way). Today, you can pay the same amount for that speed over the fucking air.  Is it sorcery?  NO.  It’s the nexus of Science and the Free Market.   Is it a perfect plan?  No, but could we have ever dreamed of such a thing in 2007?  Hell No.  This and plans like it will do more to close the digital divide than any silly gnashing of teeth about how the Government needs to do more.

 

There is a worrying trend I have read across the Libertarian blogosphere over past weeks. These reactionary pieces are calling for “aggression” against “aggression” or Hoppean-styled “removal” (queue the Augusto Pinochet helicopter memes) of the communist scum. As assuming as these seems on the surface, the Right are becoming angry – very angry. Factions within the movement have drawn stark ideological lines. The reactionary Right (or Alt-Right) are triggering the Libertarian Left, pushing back against the NAP as Antifa acts to implement their political form of resistance with violence. This Political warfare inevitably leads to political violence which can descend into open and bloody warfare. This trend is troubling but unfortunately not unprecedented in our history.

1861 was the year the U.S. Civil War began and I see lots of parallels. Long before shots were fired,  a country was divided after the results of a contentious election.  One side did not accept the election results, spinning conspiracies based on fear and uncertainty. There were Protests and political warfare between two ideological views of what America should become. Subversive elements within the government stoking the tensions while playing both sides (the deep state so to speak). All these historical elements have contemporary corollaries to today for something truly terrible to happen. Read 1861: the Civil War Awakening. It is very prescient.

Then there is the rise of the Neo-reactionaries within the Libertarian movement. I am at my core still a Conservative but while I find their arguments compelling on Traditionalist grounds, they all give off an exclusionary, Statist White Supremacy vibe. Just my “feels” but not a condemnation of what they are doing – besides you should always, when possible, embrace and defend your fringes. This is what the Left does so well when they promote the more cultural nihilistic factions of there philosophy. But I encourage Libertarians (Left or Right) to listen to their arguments and where productive engage these folks here and here. It can be uncomfortable to watch and read but you must.  These are views within the movement that must be co-opted or combated but not ostracized.

There are lot of pseudo-Constitutional scholars and lawyers online this weekend pertaining to the “Muslim Ban“.  First, let’s leave aside the debate of whether this is actually a Muslim Ban – it’s not– and look at this morally and philosophically.  When did seeking asylum or immigration to the U.S. become the right to everyone on earth?  I am compassionate to the plight of refugees, particularly from the countries that we have invaded, bombed or destabilized.  Where my compassion stops is open border polices for the sake of virtue signalling to the world that we are the better people; we are a nation of immigrants; multicultural diversity is our strength. These argument are patently absurd and there are numerous breakdowns as to why these arguments are rubbish. We are (as a country) allow more legal immigrants and issue more “Green cards” into our country than the rest of the world.  You can use statistical rhetoric to say that we on a per capita basis don’t, but that’s just disingenuous. I am the son of a Nigerian immigrant and my father holds dual citizenship. No currently law or executive order impedes his ability to go between both countries – Nigeria is 50% Muslim.

Here is the crux of the issue, no one has the right to come here. We are a nation state (sorry AnCaps we are not there yet) and that allows us some degree of latitude of whom we permit to enter. We may not like it, it’s a hell of an inconvenience for the free flow of people across borders, but the world is full of dangerous people that wish to do us harm – some for justifiable reasons. As I have stated numerous times on social media where all the hyperventilating is taking place, while this Executive Orders may be ham handed and a blunt instrument for instituting policy it is not unprecedented. While it is not an excuse, the Obama Administration did do something similar back in 2011 with Iraqi refugees.

But this begs to question a broader issue of executive power that hysteria and sycophantic behavior of the Left and Right receptively ignore. No one man in the office should stop you from making things happen for yourself. If it does stop you that says more about the consolidated power of the office, not the man. Obama administration set a dangerous precedence with previous executive action on immigration – the Left were silent.  The Trump Administration now uses those same powers to reverse it. Right or wrong the people of Middle America voted for the latter. Elections have consequences and so do Executive Orders as an instrument of policy making. That should alarm us all.

But let’s look at the genesis of this current controversy. ‪Why are failed interventionists policies of the Obama administration and the Europeans powers (Libya, Syria, Iraq, Yemen) that caused the Refugees crisis our fault?  So now this currently administration and the American people should have to clean up the mess?  Let’s not forget that interventionists wars over the pass decade caused this. Until we live in a prefect Libertarian society with open borders and voluntary association, a nation state has a duty to vet those who enter its territories. Sorry if that’s mean but it is just fact. No Leftist-Libertarian house organs (here and here) can change that fact.

I‘ve been and off and on Libertarian for years. I’ve recently been re-evaluating some of my stances and here is my confession (Queue the Usher Music 🎶) 

– I want Legalized Prostitution
– No more drug Prohibition
– I don’t hate cops (I just mistrust them like I mistrust all agents of the state)
– I don’t mind private prisons I just don’t trust the Justice system that fills them.
– Free trade is a must
– Privatization of money (End the Fed)
– Less or no state interference in education
– Slowly allow the market to correct Healthcare
– Get insurance companies out of Healthcare
– I’m mostly Pro-Life
– I’m mostly Pro-Israel
– I’ve Never been a fan of Ron Paul
– Believe War is mass murder but a necessary evil
– I kind of like the Constitution- despite its flaws
– I trust and respect religious institutions
– Most days I call myself a Conservative, others days a Minarchist but deep down I like          Libertarian Anarchism.
– I’m not for Open borders; I want easier immigration but not Open borders (Sorry Austin  Petersen)

I was reading yet another article attempting to shame tech executives who dare join or with the new administration when I came across this excerpt from this New York Times:

“…solar technologies, both photovoltaic and concentrated, employ almost 374,000 workers, or 43 percent of the electric power generation workforce.  (Coal, by contrast, accounts for about 86,000 workers.)”

Leave a side the Left’s bullying tactics to coerce ideological conformity.  Think about that quote that for a minute.  As of 2015 according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, coal makes up 33% of all our energy generation.  Contrast that to solar which was 0.6%. While all of the Energy industry in the U.S. receives some form of subsidies (solar received $39 billion in 2014/15),  coal receives a fraction of what Solar does and yet seems to be more efficient at wasting taxpayer subsidies to generate more energy with less workers. I would consider that a much better RIO if you wish to justify theft for cronyism.