Blog 97 | The Libertarian Institute

Progressives Are Domestic Imperialists

by Keith Knight | Apr 19, 2023 | Blog, Uncategorized

Progressives will fight tooth and nail to make sure every citizen gets a 1 in 100,000,000 vote between two politicians every four years since it allows the political system to reflect the wishes of the population at large.

However, when those very same voters try to make an economic exchange, the Progressive will unapologetically coercively interfere under the guise of “helping the little guy.” Want an internship to get on the job experience? Tough luck says the Progressive, if the internship does not pay $15 an hour with benefits it’s for your own good that you stay unexperienced. Want to sell goods? Not without a business or occupational license! Want to save your money instead of giving it to the IRS? Not a chance. Want to save a persons life by giving them a kidney in exchange for compensation? Help yourself to a $50,000 fine and five years in prison.

It does not occur to the Progressive that they are no different in principle than the European Colonialists/Imperialists which they so often condemn.

Leaked Pentagon Documents: A Thread

by Will Porter | Apr 15, 2023 | Blog

What follows are highlights from the trove of leaked US government documents that appeared on the internet sometime last month, including a handful of the documents themselves, reporting on the material, my own observations, as well as official statements and reactions.

Pentagon probing leaked docs on US/NATO war planning in Ukraine, some marked 'Top Secret.'https://t.co/xLGeIuiJnK

— Will Porter (@TheWillPorter) April 7, 2023

More here.

I'd take all of this with grains of salt given the apparent fuckery on at least one of the documents. It's interesting nonetheless, and the DoD seems to have confirmed that authentic briefing slides were in fact leaked. pic.twitter.com/q17MkyOrnY

— Will Porter (@TheWillPorter) April 7, 2023

Here's one for now – the slide on Bakhmut which was said to have first appeared on 4chan.

That's where I found it, but can't say whether it was posted anywhere else beforehand.

Again, at least one other doc appears to have been altered. I'd take all of this with skepticism. pic.twitter.com/93sugtObyM

— Will Porter (@TheWillPorter) April 8, 2023

Corporate media wringing its hands because the government doesn't have the power to scrub the internet of whatever content it wants.

Same rationale invoked by CNN would apply to the Pentagon Papers, the Snowden leaks, anything WikiLeaks has put out, etc.https://t.co/KHygklruPi

— Will Porter (@TheWillPorter) April 11, 2023

More leaked documents: pic.twitter.com/Zfe7HBatRN

— Will Porter (@TheWillPorter) April 11, 2023

WaPo today cites one "top secret" file highlighting US doubts about Ukraine's upcoming counteroffensive.

Warns of "enduring Ukrainian deficiencies in training and munitions supplies," as well as "force generation and sustainment shortfalls."https://t.co/srG8puX1S2

— Will Porter (@TheWillPorter) April 11, 2023

One especially interesting detail on a doc titled “Russia/Ukraine Joint Staff J3/4/5 Daily Update” (see above for full doc) at least *appears* to list the number of US / NATO special operations troops on the ground in Ukraine.

Far as I understand, "pax" = persons or personnel. pic.twitter.com/nf1cDyszlE

— Will Porter (@TheWillPorter) April 11, 2023

NBC, NYT, Reuters, et. al. each say they reviewed "more than 50" of the docs. Unclear why they'd all have the same number when the total was said to be 100+.

Few other interesting takeaways noted by Axios related to US spying on its own allies:https://t.co/oJgbTTq90j pic.twitter.com/ZBxC5FE4DZ

— Will Porter (@TheWillPorter) April 11, 2023

To get an idea of what the Russian military bloggers are saying about the leaks, here's Rybar's take.

Another Russian channel, 'Military Chronicle,' also has analysis – https://t.co/gYX3NJlLnS

Just presenting multiple viewpoints.https://t.co/TantnNoPrK

— Will Porter (@TheWillPorter) April 11, 2023

Two docs seen by NBC detail Ukrainian drone strikes on Russian and Belarusian territory, after Kiev previously said it had no interest in such attacks.https://t.co/aBvAmEj6W1

Asked about that on Tuesday, Sec. Blinken declined to comment.https://t.co/XVg1zp2mTU pic.twitter.com/uKzIUwNCCL

— Will Porter (@TheWillPorter) April 12, 2023

^It should be noted that April 6 is the same day the Times published its initial report about the leaks.

The United States 'intelligence community' includes no less than 18 separate agencies. I guess it's a good thing one of them reads the NYT.

— Will Porter (@TheWillPorter) April 12, 2023

You can read the Post report with no paywall here: https://t.co/UTb7qB6T5P

The leaker was said to have worked at an unspecified military base. I don't imagine it'd be all that difficult for the government to narrow down which one. pic.twitter.com/JN10VAxtga

— Will Porter (@TheWillPorter) April 13, 2023

Thought I was able to add multiple videos to one tweet, but apparently not. Will have to do the three clips separately. pic.twitter.com/bJdG8setYA

— Will Porter (@TheWillPorter) April 13, 2023

The Times has ID’d the likely leaker as Jack Teixeira, an airman with the 102nd Intelligence Wing of the Massachusetts Air National Guard.

He’s who the Post referred to as “OG,” the guy who ran the Discord server that initially hosted the docs.https://t.co/UpeUUTjEr9

— Will Porter (@TheWillPorter) April 13, 2023

Brief statement on the arrest from AG Merrick Garland.

Says FBI agents took Teixeira into custody “without incident.” https://t.co/k5CwEEFLCP

— Will Porter (@TheWillPorter) April 13, 2023

I do find this pretty strange, but I’m keeping an open mind.

Some servicemen might have access to more than you’d think they would, but agree the whole story sounds a bit fishy.

That a low-ranking airman could get his hands on top secret files does demand an explanation. https://t.co/yNIHb0A0lS

— Will Porter (@TheWillPorter) April 13, 2023

A leaked Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) assessment raises doubts about the potential for a peace deal between Russia and Ukraine this year, suggesting both sides will make only "marginal" gains.

Concludes a stalemate is “the most likely scenario.”https://t.co/gGFXxJrIyu pic.twitter.com/v5Cf1bFaE9

— Will Porter (@TheWillPorter) April 14, 2023

National Security Council spox John Kirby recently addressed the doc suggesting a US Special Forces presence in Ukraine.

“There has been no change to the president’s mandate that there will not be American troops in Ukraine fighting in this war.”https://t.co/djmmjeGKaE pic.twitter.com/Z91EbvnKaB

— Will Porter (@TheWillPorter) April 15, 2023

Follow me at @TheWillPorter for more updates.

Interview Show 20th Anniversary

by Scott Horton | Apr 12, 2023 | Blog

I started on the radio in late 1998, but today is the 20th anniversary of the interview show. First of 5,894 so far was the great Alan Bock on Iraq, three days after the marines pulled down Saddam’s statue in Baghdad.

The full archive is here.

The Robber Barons: Historical Fact vs. Progressive Mythology

by Keith Knight | Apr 7, 2023 | Blog, Economics

The standard theory of monopoly within the mainstream of the economics profession is that monopolies increase prices and reduce production levels compared to competitive industries. So I gathered historical economic data on prices and production for seventeen of the industries accused of monopolization during the congressional debates over the Sherman Act. Surprisingly, no other economist had apparently ever done this! What I found was that while real (inflation-adjusted) gross domestic product (GDP) increased by about 24 percent from 1880 to 1890, the industries accused of “restricting output” increased their production by 175 percent on average, seven times more than the economy in general. For example, steel production rose by 258 percent, zinc 156 percent, coal 153 percent, steel rails 142 percent, petroleum 79 percent, and sugar 75 percent. And during that same time period, as the consumer price index (CPI) fell by 7 percent, the “trusts” that were accused of monopolization dropped their prices by far more. The price of steel rail fell by 53 percent, refined sugar became 22 percent cheaper, lead declined in price by 12 percent, and zinc by 20 percent, for example. This trend of production in these industries dominated by “trusts”—the supposed “natural monopolies”—outstripping GDP as a whole and prices declining faster in these industries than the CPI continued on for the next decade as well.

– Thomas J. DiLorenzo, Ph.D., The Politically Incorrect Guide to Economics

By the guidelines set down by the Selective Service Act, all males aged 21 to 30 were required to register to potentially be selected for military service. At the request of the War Department, Congress amended the law in August 1918 to expand the age range to include all men 18 to 45, and to bar further volunteering.^[7] By the end of World War I, some two million men volunteered for various branches of the armed services, and some 2.8 million had been drafted.^[8] This meant that more than half of the almost 4.8 million Americans who served in the armed forces were drafted. Due to the effort to incite a patriotic attitude, the World War I draft had a high success rate, with fewer than 350,000 men “dodging” the draft.

– Selective Service Act of 1917, Wikipedia

The Capitalist Competition Myth

by Keith Knight | Mar 25, 2023 | Blog

Capitalism involves far more cooperation than competition—think of the number of mutually beneficial transactions you’ve had today compared to the number of competitions you’ve been in today

– Chris Freiman, author of Why It’s OK to Ignore Politics

Democratic socialists sometimes object to capitalism on the grounds that it’s unduly competitive but democracy also looks pretty competitive to me

– Chris Freiman, author of Why It’s OK to Ignore Politics