Rational Review News Digest, 01/16/18 -- Commentary (Nativists don’t know the future; Trump’s ridiculous ultimatum on the nuclear deal)
RATIONAL REVIEW NEWS DIGEST
The Freedom Movement's Daily Newspaper
Volume XVI, Issue #3,889
Steemit Edition -- Tuesday, January 16th, 2018
Web Edition: http://rationalreview.com
Email Edition: http://eepurl.com/bSo8ST
TDOAY'S COMMENTARY
Nativists don’t know the future
Trump’s ridiculous ultimatum on the nuclear deal
Can government officials have you arrested for speaking to them?
America’s civil war
No, immigrants aren’t stealing our jobs
After Hawaii false alarm, get serious about preparing for nuclear attack
The racism and s***hole circus misses the point
No, Medicaid work requirements aren’t racist or cruel
Why the US should support Iran protesters
Queer against empire
The return of earmarks won’t solve congressional irresponsibility
Lords should leave Leveson out of it
In two-state, one-state, no-state, two still the magic number
Start saving now, because Social Security is screwed
The three reasons Martin Luther King Jr. rejected communism
How the civil rights movement brought us free speech on campus
The forgotten socialist history of Martin Luther King Jr.
Babylon goes broke
The public domain starts growing again next year, and it’s about time
Would Dr. King take a knee?
Quantum Vibe, 01/15/18
Feds’ misconduct in Cliven Bundy case stems from Ruby Ridge
“But so-and-so did it first!” defense is for toddlers, not national discourse
Everything seems to be going south
All different types of “holes”
Have a drink — it won’t kill you
What followed the triple axel
Liberty, law and the market economy
In which world would you rather live?
If your crypto doesn’t have a mobile wallet it’s not really a currency
Nativists don’t know the future
Source: Indepdendent Institute
by Robert Higgs
“Many anti-immigrationists display a remarkable confidence in their ability to forecast how immigrants will act for many years into the future. So, for example, the nativists often allege that if, say, Mexicans are permitted to enter the USA, they will sooner or later vote for governmental measures to plunder the current residents and redistribute the loot to themselves. What gives the nativists such powers of divining the future, especially when they have no special knowledge of social science or ethnic history to work with? It might be worthwhile for people to consider how the ‘experts’ have fared over the past couple of centuries in making such forecasts. The main conclusion one would be compelled to reach from such a consideration is that the experts have an almost perfect record of poor forecasts, indeed of many forecasts that were the opposite of what actually came about in the fullness of time.” (01/15/18)
http://blog.independent.org/2018/01/15/nativists-dont-know-the-future/
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Trump’s ridiculous ultimatum on the nuclear deal
Source: The American Conservative
by Daniel Larison
“It has been clear for years that Trump wants to renege on the nuclear deal, but it’s also clear that he wants to be able to blame someone else when he does so. The problem for Trump is that his bad faith on this issue is so obvious to everyone that his attempt to shift the blame for his poor policy choices won’t work. Our European allies won’t yield to his ridiculous ultimatum because they have no reason to do so. If the U.S. opts to break the commitments it made under the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), it will do so without obtaining their assistance in providing political cover.” (01/15/18)
http://www.theamericanconservative.com/larison/trumps-ridiculous-ultimatum-on-the-nuclear-deal/
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Can government officials have you arrested for speaking to them?
Source: The Atlantic
by Garrett Epps
“If a citizen speaks at a public meeting and says something a politician doesn’t like, can she be arrested, cuffed, and carted off to the hoosegow? … Deyshia Hargrave, meet Fane Lozman. You need to follow his case. Hargrave is a language arts teacher in Kaplan, La. She was arrested Monday after she questioned school-district policy during public comment at a school board meeting. … Fane Lozman, whose case will be argued in front of the Supreme Court on February 27, faced the same fate at a meeting of the Riviera Beach, Fl., City Council in November 2006. Mr. Lozman, remarkably enough, has made his way to the high court more or less without assistance twice in the past four years, arguing two different aspects of his acrimonious dispute with the Riviera Beach city government.” (01/15/18)
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America’s civil war
Source: Antiwar.com
by Justin Raimondo
“According to a coalition of forces including the Democratic party, the FBI, the CIA, and most of the “news” media, the country has been taken over by Vladimir Putin and the Russian State: President Donald J. Trump is an instrument in their hands, and the independence of the United States has been fatally compromised: the President and his top aides are taking their orders from the Kremlin. This wouldn’t even pass an elementary course in formulaic script-writing, not to mention that gigantic plagiarism problem such a project would pose: it’s been done to death. But a lack of originality isn’t something that would stop our spooks, as dogged as they are. Our intelligence agencies are at war with the executive branch of government, and they have been ever since Trump triumphed in the Electoral College and decisively defeated Hillary Clinton. The FBI/CIA/Deep State have been trying mightily to reverse the election results since that moment, to no avail.” (01/15/18)
https://original.antiwar.com/justin/2018/01/14/americas-civil-war/
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No, immigrants aren’t stealing our jobs
Source: Foundation for Economic Education
by T Norman Van Cott
“The continuing controversy over immigration, legal and illegal, smothers long-standing flattering descriptions of the United States as a ‘nation of immigrants.’ Ditto for ‘melting pot’ and e pluribus unum (‘out of many, one’). I enjoy asking people opposed to immigration when it was that immigrants began to undermine the US economy. Answers laced with smugness about immigrants ‘stealing our jobs’ and racial or ethnic animus are common. Amusing to me was a relative who said that immigrants ‘went bad after our people arrived.’ … So what is it about immigration? Why the outcry? Why does a nation of immigrants react so vehemently to whoever is the immigrant target group of the day/month/year? Working immigrants, legal or illegal, put into play two opposing forces on living standards of resident Americans.” (01/15/18)
https://fee.org/articles/no-immigrants-are-not-stealing-our-jobs/
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After Hawaii false alarm, get serious about preparing for nuclear attack
Source: USA Today
by Glenn Harlan Reynolds
“As the recent missile-attack false alarm in Hawaii demonstrated, Americans are simultaneously worried about nuclear war and not seriously prepared for it. But the problem goes far beyond the inept handling of an emergency-alert system. Take, for example, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The CDC recently announced a program to work on preparing for a nuclear attack. ‘While a nuclear detonation is unlikely, it would have devastating results and there would be limited time to take critical protection steps. Despite the fear surrounding such an event, planning and preparation can lessen deaths and illness,’ the agency wrote.” [editor’s note: So, duck and cover or dig a bomb-shelter? More security theater, since if it happens there will be recourse anyway? – SAT] (01/15/18)
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The racism and s***hole circus misses the point
Source: Future of Freedom Foundation
by Jacob G Hornberger
“Amidst all the furor over whether Donald Trump is a racist and whether he did in fact describe Haiti and African countries as ‘s***holes,’ the real point is one that hardly anyone wants to face, including Trump’s critics who continue to support immigration controls on Haiti and Africa to ensure that not too many of their citizens come to the United States. The real point is this: The ongoing, decades-long U.S. immigration crisis, chaos, and controversy are rooted in immigration controls. As long as immigration controls remain in place, so will the crisis, chaos, and controversy.” (01/15/18)
https://www.fff.org/2018/01/15/racism-shole-circus-misses-point/
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No, Medicaid work requirements aren’t racist or cruel
Source: The American Spectator
by David Catron
“Democrat/MSM propaganda notwithstanding, the CMS decision to support states that wish to use a work requirement as a prerequisite for continued Medicaid eligibility for able-bodied adults seems eminently reasonable.” (01/15/18)
https://spectator.org/no-medicaid-work-requirements-arent-racist-or-cruel/
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Why the US should support Iran protesters
Source: Reuters [UK]
by Roya Hakakian
“In recent weeks, Iran has again been in the throes of an uprising. Signs of the regime change America had long hoped to see are on the horizon. In the unlikeliest cities (once the strongholds of the conservatives) Iranians have taken to the streets, demanding, not just reform, but a referendum. A nationwide referendum in March 1979, in which over 90 percent of Iranians marked Islamic Republic as their choice of government, gave legitimacy to the current regime. Many Iranians now hope for a second referendum, which could give them a chance to undo the government they chose nearly 40 years ago. The restraint that the United States showed in refraining from military action against Iran was the right course when the threat of war loomed between the two nations. But while we must continue to avoid war at all costs, now that defenseless Iranians have taken to the streets, cautious silence is no longer the right approach.” [editor’s note: Oh, right; more regime change – NOPE! – SAT] (01/15/18)
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Queer against empire
Source: exile in happy valley
by comrade hermit
“The state cannot exist without whole classes of people to subjugate and oppress. These people aren’t just the foreign targets of death squads and drone strikes but the domestic targets of police violence and mass incarceration. This includes queer people, my people, who are singled out and violated by the state for rejecting their established status quo on sexual and gender etiquette. In other words we refuse to play by their rules and lead a bad example to the rest of the proletariat expected to toe the company line. Controlling a sizable population of people becomes a lot harder when you can’t divide and conquer and when your very existence shreds notions as basic as the gender binary you find yourself pretty close to the top of the establishment’s shitlist. After all, if boys aren’t boys and girls aren’t girls then how will the state know who to oppress?” (01/15/18)
http://exileinhappyvalley.blogspot.com/2018/01/queer-against-empire.html
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The return of earmarks won’t solve congressional irresponsibility
Source: National Review
by Jay Cost
“Let’s stipulate the Hamiltonian argument that individual passions need to be corralled for the public interest. There are still several, related problems with earmarks in practice. The first is a matter of efficiency. Yes, it is true that earmarks are a tool to induce recalcitrant members to support a necessary measure. However, once members realize that their votes can be traded for earmarks, they will start to hold back their support — resulting in a dramatic increase in requests for earmarks. … Second, there is the problem of wasted time. The legislative calendar is already short, and legislative staff already spread way too thin. The annual deluge of earmarks distracts Congress even more from attending to its weightier duties. Third, there is the problem of corruption.” (01/15/18)
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Lords should leave Leveson out of it
Source: Adam Smith Institute
by Matt Kilcoyne
“We are rightly keen to chastise and lampoon the enemies of a free press away from home (whether its mocking Trump’s attacks of #FakeNews and his calls to open up the libel laws, Chinese censorship or Turkey’s Erdogan shutting down private papers and TV channels). But the threat that comes from the House of Lords should be just as worrying.” (01/15/18)
https://www.adamsmith.org/blog/lords-leveson-2
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In two-state, one-state, no-state, two still the magic number
Source: The American Prospect
by Gershom Gorenberg
“You know that moment: when you notice that the chatter in a crowded room full of people has risen to a roar? Right now the crowded hall is the virtual space containing everyone even vaguely concerned with Israel and Palestine. The roar is many of them saying loudly, emphatically, that this two-state business is past tense. Israel under Netanyahu has gone much too far in absorbing the occupied territories, they say; the United States of Trump has lost its license as the couples therapist for nations. The time has come, or will be here in a moment, when the only solution (if you care about democracy) is for Palestinians to become full voting citizens of Israel, which will in that case no longer be Israel. The clamor is justified. The conclusions don’t hold up.” (01/15/18)
http://prospect.org/article/two-state-one-state-no-state-two-still-magic-number
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Start saving now, because Social Security is screwed
Source: Reason
by Veronique de Rugy
“The single largest government program in the United States will soon have an annual budget of $1 trillion a year. Yet even that amount isn’t sufficient to fulfill the promises it has made. If Congress doesn’t address its insolvency issues, payouts will need to be slashed by a quarter starting in fewer than 20 years. The program is Social Security, and our national pastime seems to be turning a blind eye to its dysfunctions.” (for publication 02/18)
http://reason.com/archives/2018/01/15/start-saving-now-because-socia
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The three reasons Martin Luther King Jr. rejected communism
Source: Acton Institute
by Rev. Ben Johnson
“Today is Martin Luther King Jr. Day in the United States, but the civil rights leader is a figure of worldwide significance. He learned the principles of non-violence from those resisting the British empire, received the Nobel Peace Prize in Stockholm, and is one of the ‘twentieth century martyrs’ whose statue sits atop the great west door of Westminster Cathedral (alongside Maximilian Kolbe, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, and others). And 50 years after his death, his moral crusade for equal treatment under the law continues to inspire idealists across the globe. Just months after the 100th anniversary of the Bolshevik Revolution, it is worth remembering that King explicitly denounced Communism.” (01/15/18)
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How the civil rights movement brought us free speech on campus
Souce: Foundation for Individual Rights in Education
“As our nation takes the day to celebrate the legacy of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., for those of us at FIRE it’s worth pausing once again to consider the contributions of the movement King came to represent to the conception of First Amendment and due process rights FIRE continues to defend today. The reality is that FIRE would not and could not exist if not for two movements. First is the Enlightenment, which brought us (among many other things) the United States, the Bill of Rights, and the idea — enshrined in our founding documents, if not in practice — that ‘all men are created equal.’ Second is the African-American civil rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s, which set the modern template for successful and peaceful activism.” (01/15/18)
https://www.thefire.org/how-the-civil-rights-movement-brought-us-free-speech-on-campus/
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The forgotten socialist history of Martin Luther King Jr.
Source: In These Times
by Matthew Miles Goodrich
“In 1952 a 23-year-old Martin Luther King Jr. wrote a love letter to Coretta Scott. Along with coos of affection and apologies for his hasty handwriting, he described his feelings not just toward his future wife, but also toward America’s economic system. ‘I am much more socialistic in my economic theory than capitalistic,’ he admitted to his then-girlfriend, concluding that ‘capitalism has outlived its usefulness.’ King composed these words as a grad student on the tail end of his first year at the Boston University School of Theology. And far from representing just the utopianism of youth, the views expressed in the letter would go on to inform King’s economic vision throughout his life. As Americans honor King on his birthday, it is important to remember that the civil rights icon was also a democratic socialist, committed to building a broad movement to overcome the failings of capitalism and achieve both racial and economic equality for all people.” (01/15/18)
http://inthesetimes.com/article/20839/martin-luther-king-jr-day-socialism-capitalism
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Babylon goes broke
Source: Common Sense
by Paul Jacob
“A few Babylonian, er, California cities going bankrupt — Stockton, Vallejo, and Bell — should be seen as more than dead canaries in a coalminer’s care. Indeed, you don’t need special prophetic gifts to see the dangers posed by over-promising cushy pensions to government workers. Californians are coming around.” (01/15/18)
http://thisiscommonsense.com/2018/01/15/babylon-goes-broke/
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The public domain starts growing again next year, and it’s about time
Source: Electronic Frontier Foundation
by Katharine Trendacosta
“One major rationale for copyright is supposedly that, by giving an exclusive set of rights to artists for their work, we incentivize creativity by making it possible for artists to benefit from releasing works to the public. But copyright protection is supposed to be limited, and once it expires, a work enters the public domain, where anyone can use it. In the United States, the length of the copyright term has been steadily extended so that published works are effectively copyrighted for 95 years (for corporate works) or until 70 years after an author’s death (for individual works). This has resulted in a public domain that saw increasingly less materials being added to it, limiting the ability of artists to build on works that came before them. The last time Congress changed the law in the 1998 Copyright Term Extension Act, it was applied retroactively. Effectively, it meant that nothing has entered the public domain in the United States for years. January 1, 2019 will mark the end of this dry spell as works first published in 1923 will finally enter the public domain.” (01/15/18)
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Would Dr. King take a knee?
Source: Our Future
by Richard Eskow
“[Today], the nation celebrates Martin Luther King, Jr. Day. If he hadn’t been murdered, he would be 89 years old. How would Dr. King view today’s activists? Would he join them to walk picket lines for a higher minimum wage, or take a knee as the national anthem is played? The words to his “I Have a Dream” speech will be repeated from podiums and in classrooms across the country. But many of the people repeating these words have never heard other King quotes, like this one: ‘I am convinced that if we are to get on to the right side of the world revolution, we as a nation must undergo a radical revolution of values.’ To those who condemn idealism, who preach the quiet cynicism of self-limiting ‘pragmatism’ and insist it’s ‘how the world works,’ Dr. King had an answer: He was, in his own words, ‘maladjusted.’” (01/14/18)
https://ourfuture.org/20180115/would-dr-king-take-a-knee-5-ways-his-radical-spirit-lives-on-today
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Quantum Vibe, 01/15/18
Source: Big Head Press
by Scott Bieser & Lea Jean Badelles
Cartoon. (01/15/18)
http://www.quantumvibe.com/strip?page=1745
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Feds’ misconduct in Cliven Bundy case stems from Ruby Ridge
Source: JimBovard.com
by James Bovard
“Federal judge Gloria Navarro slammed the FBI and Justice Department on Monday, Jan. 8, for ‘outrageous’ abuses and ‘flagrant misconduct’ in the prosecution of Cliven Bundy and sons, the Nevada ranchers who spurred a high-profile standoff with the FBI and Bureau of Land Management in 2014. Navarro condemned the ‘grossly shocking’ withholding of evidence from defense counsel in a case that could have landed the Bundys in prison for the rest of their lives. Navarro, who had declared a mistrial last month, dismissed all charges against the Bundys. Navarro was especially riled because the FBI spent three years covering up or lying about the role of their snipers in the 2014 standoff. … Judge Navarro rightly declared that ‘a universal sense of justice has been violated’ by federal misconduct in the Bundy trial. Americans’ trust in the FBI and Justice Department will not be restored until those agencies are compelled to obey the law and the Constitution.” (01/14/18)
http://jimbovard.com/blog/2018/01/14/the-hill-ruby-ridge-spurred-feds-bundy-bollixing/
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“But so-and-so did it first!” defense is for toddlers, not national discourse
Source: Fox News Forum
by Shellie Rushing Tomlinson
“I’m not sure if we Americans were happier to ring in the New Year or wring the neck of the old one. Either way, 2018 is here bearing the familiar heady promise of fresh beginnings. If only the blank slate that encourages us to embark on our personal do-overs would beckon us to rethink the state of our national discourse. As it is, we’ve largely abandoned our proverbial water coolers where adult conversations had at least the potential of bringing about change, in favor of flying fingers launching verbal attacks from the safety of our glowing bunker screens. Yesterday, I shared a social media tip for 2018. It was my effort at creating one of those popular memes and it featured the snarling image of an angry dog, and the ageless wisdom of Proverbs 16:7: ‘Like one who grabs a stray dog by the ears is he who rushes into a quarrel not his own.’ I’d love to see that idea go viral, but sadly, we’re all too eager to stake a position in the day’s trending battle, whatever it may be. Sigh.” (01/14/18)
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Everything seems to be going south
Source: CounterPunch
by David Macaray
“It was many decades ago when word first reached business executives in faraway Tokyo, Japan, that if they were ever seriously considering putting down permanent manufacturing roots in the U.S., they would be well advised to place them in the American South. Not only was the U.S. an unbelievably fertile market — indeed, we invented ‘mega-consumerism’ — but because the former CSA (Confederate States of America) was conspicuously and stridently opposed to collectivism, government regulation, and labor unions, the American South would be the perfect place to establish, well, an ‘industrial empire.’ And that more or less marked the beginning GIM (the Great Industrial Migration).” (01/15/18)
https://www.counterpunch.org/2018/01/15/everything-seems-to-be-going-south/
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All different types of “holes”
Source: Town Hall
by Derek Hunter
“The media’s fainting couches were fully engaged and the pearls were tightly clutched as word leaked out of a private White House meeting that President Trump referred to some of the worst places on Earth as … um (how I can put this in a way that will get past the editors?), feces-holes. It was inartful. It was crude. But it was in private, and it was, unquestioningly accurate. There are some really awful places in the world with horribly corrupt governments and oppressive economies. There is also a limit to who we can, and should, admit to this country to live, work and possibly become citizens. That idea is now racist, not because President Trump used an obscene term in the Oval Office, but because liberals, in and out of the media, simply declared it to be.” [editor’s note: Since when is an Oval Office meeting with congressional leaders to discuss legislation “private?” – TLK] (01/14/18)
https://townhall.com/columnists/derekhunter/2018/01/14/all-different-types-of-holes-n2434216
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Have a drink — it won’t kill you
Source: spiked
by Rob Lyons
“Millions enjoy going out at the weekend and ‘killing some brain cells’ by downing a few drinks. Most of us would assume, especially when feeling tender the morning after, that booze is not good for your brain. Now, a new study on alcohol and cognitive decline is being used to suggest that official guidelines on alcohol consumption, already laughably low, should be lowered still further. As with all such claims, some serious scepticism is required.” (01/15/18)
http://www.spiked-online.com/newsite/article/have-a-drink-it-wont-kill-you/
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What followed the triple axel
Source: Liberty Unbound
by Jo Ann Skousen
“In U.S. Figure Skating, you can deliver the skate of your life, earn a silver medal, and still not make the Olympic team. Ross Miner did just that on January 7, skating a nearly perfect program to a rousing medley of Queen songs that earned him a silver medal behind 18-year-old skating phenom Nathan Chen and his five quadruple jumps. No one was going to beat Chen; silver was the new gold in 2018. To win that silver medal, Miner had to be perfect. And he was. … Unlike what happens in track and field, swimming, skiing, and just about any other sport, winning at U.S. Figure Skating Nationals doesn’t guarantee you a trip to the Olympics. In figure skating that decision is made behind closed doors by a committee that examines the skaters’ ‘body of work’ to decide who is most likely to bring home a medal. And this season they’re betting on Rippon. Thanks for the memories, Ross. See ya later.” (01/15/18)
http://libertyunbound.com/node/1802
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Liberty, law and the market economy
Source: Future of Freedom Foundation
by Richard M Ebeling
“The history of liberty and prosperity is inseparable from the practice of free enterprise and respect for the rule of law. Both are products of the spirit of classical liberalism. But a correct understanding of free enterprise, the rule of law, and liberalism (rightly understood) is greatly lacking in the world today.” (01/15/18)
https://www.fff.org/explore-freedom/article/liberty-law-market-economy/
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In which world would you rather live?
Source: Cafe Hayek
by Don Boudreaux
“In Smithworld, many people save, while in Keynesworld no one saves. Also in Smithworld, wealthier people save higher portions of their incomes than do their less-wealthy fellow Smithworlders. In stark contrast, in Keynesworld every cent earned as income, within the week of it being earned, is spent to satisfy an immediate consumption desire. Put differently, the marginal propensity to consume in Keynesworld is much higher than it is on Smithworld. Indeed, in Keynesworld, the marginal propensity to consume is 100 percent, and it is 100 percent regardless of income level. If you had to choose to be a life-long resident of one of these two worlds, which of these worlds would you choose for you and your family?” (01/14/18)
http://cafehayek.com/2018/01/world-rather-live.html
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If your crypto doesn’t have a mobile wallet it’s not really a currency
Source: Bitcoin.com
by Kai Sedgwick
“Anyone can create a cryptocurrency. It’s a surprisingly simple process, especially if you copy the codebase of an existing coin and give it a new name. That’s how many of the most popular cryptocurrencies such as litecoin were born. But creating a cryptocurrency and mining the genesis block isn’t enough: until that coin has its own mobile wallet and can be used to transact, it doesn’t deserve to be called a cryptocurrency.” (01/14/18)
https://news.bitcoin.com/if-your-crypto-doesnt-have-a-mobile-wallet-its-not-really-a-currency/
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