Nuclear Submarine Power Stations

As an adjunct to Peter Thiel's editorial: "The New Atomic Age we Need" I believe that nuclear submarines, which appear to be such a waste in a world with regional factional conflict and terror rather than state ones, would better serve the public as underwater long tube nuclear power creating mechanisms to provide clean energy in coastal urban areas and safely since radioactivity does not radiate more than a few feet from its source in water.

Fight ISIS and Yet Stay True to our Heritage of Liberty

A growing anxiety in the wake of the Paris terrorist attacks is calling all sides of the American political spectrum to action.  Unfortunately reaction to fear puts our heritage based on the Declaration of Independence in a position where we trade our liberty for the illusory security of a garrison state. The 9/11 terrorist attacks ignited fears the likes of which not seen since the red scare of the nineteen forties and fifties with the posturing of many of our leaders and thoughtful commentators who would betray our heritage in the name of preserving it. Understanding that Paris is a taunt purposely administered to foster mindless retaliatory action that results in, from the book ISIS: Inside the Army of Terror by Michael Weiss and Hassan Hassan, “another tactical victory rendered strategically negligible because of the enormous propaganda boon it delivered” will go a long way in logically dealing with the chaos.  Rather than play along with the Al Qaida manual, The Management of Savagery, instructing how to weaken enemy states through “vexation and exhaustion” the allies must counter with alternative tension deflating tactics directed toward various strategies in the Middle East with a goal of pacifying the region and yet stay true to our heritage of liberty.

Marco Rubio the Neocon Puppet

Restoring America's Strength: My Vision for U.S. Foreign Policy by Marco Rubio is a declaration for the need to double down on George W. Bush's unilateral adventure into the hornet's nest in the Middle East and a call to seek out others.

Two Articles indicating a Path to a Grand Strategy to Pacify the Middle East

It is far more likely, however, that Iraq will continue its current slide and its government will keep failing to fulfill its basic obligations to deliver security and services. In that case, the next U.S. president should act decisively to prevent Iraq from degenerating into a second Syria, a zombie state terrorizing its citizens, exporting millions of refugees, and incubating jihad. This would mean openly encouraging confederal decentralization across Iraq and Syria—devolving powers from Baghdad and Damascus to the provinces while maintaining the two countries’ territorial integrity. In extreme circumstances, Washington might resort to embracing Balkan-style partition and a new regional political order. 

To be sure, the United States would profit greatly from close ties with a strong, prosperous Egypt that had a representative government and a capable military—a country that could act as an anchor for regional security and counterterrorist efforts, help contain Iran, and live up to its historical role as a leader of and model for the Arab world. But such an Egypt does not exist today and seems unlikely to emerge anytime soon. In the two years since leading a military coup, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi has given little reason to hope that he can sustainably grow the country’s economy or improve basic services and security. Meanwhile, he has cracked down on almost all forms of dissent and opposition. The Sisi regime has simply not provided a credible road map for Egypt’s future.

Pandering to Fear

Rand:  Your latest latest Senate move to defund refugees is pandering to the electorate's fear. You know better. Fear leads to authoritarian actions contrary to our libertarian ideals and heritage.

Paris Aftermath

Watching Charlie Rose last night and was struck by Roger Cohen's dispirited outlook from the attacks which reached a point of mindlessness.  If ISIS's sole purpose was to taunt our leaders and opinion makers into mindless reaction then they succeeded.  Michael Weiss on the other hand appears to have a deep nuanced understanding of Syria and Iraq, I just downloaded his ISIS: Inside the Army of Terror, that recognizes Secretary of State John Kerry's cease fire effort for Syria negotiated in Vienna without Syrians is laughably delusional.  In a nut shell the good guys lay down their arms before Assad's and Daesh's assault.  Deep understanding shines a light on a pathway to peace and apparently its what Kerry lacks about Syria.

Those Who Give Up Liberty for Security deserve Neither

You got that C.I.A. Director John Brennan?  Terrorist adapt to big brother surveillance so that the authorities require more and more intrusion.  It appears that the Paris strikes were coordinated with Sony Play Station. The unblinking eye now will re-direct its surveillance to play. With Brennan as their ally the terrorist are destroying our liberty with taunts to get us into the fight overseas and make ourselves a garrison state.

Small Brewers

I heard Chris Murphy on NPR speaking against the consolidation of the beer business.  What he spoke of sounded generally meddlesome, such as the unfairness of the canning industry giving favorable treatment to the giants of the business.  If a small craft brewer wants to compete by offering canned beer then they deserve to go out of business because they don't know their market, which is deliver something special to their customers and not some InBev swivel. 

The Strategy

After the terrorism in Paris all the candidates declare that something has to be done to counter ISIS.  Its the the mindless response that ISIS wants! The western democracies must understand that a strategy that pacifies rather than exacerbates is what is required. Trying to hold together the failed nation states of Iraq and Syria exacerbates the tensions in the middle east.  To pacify let the various sects split apart and fully support with humanitarian and economic aid enclaves of decency where moderate political unions that serve its people can develop and use the military sparingly to defend their sanctuaries from the barbarians outside. Eventually these communities grow with those seeking refuge from terror and a place for a real life so that the swamps are drained of the good and the terrorist whither with no victims to terrorize.

Et Tu, Turkey?

Roger Cohen's "Turkey, Haunted by its Ghosts" is archived here as a reflection on the forces breaking regions off the former Ottoman Empire into new nation states.

Secretary of State John Kerry is the Nonstarter

Just listening to the 4:00 clock news on NPR and hear the Russians telling Kerry that it does not support theoretical designs of a Syria without Assad and The Secretary countering that such a stance is a nonstarter. Really?  Why re-assemble an already broken up Syria? And for that matter, Iraq?  Where is it written that a nation state can never be broken up?  Europe assembled Syria and Iraq with the stroke of a pen.  No one can accuse Kerry of lacking dogged determination but as with his Israeli peace mission two years ago he is up against intractable social hurt and damage that no pen and paper can put back together again.  Why not let Assad have his Alawite enclave and the Kurds and Sunnis have theirs?

Minimum Wages should be determined locally, if at all

On Minimum Wage, Ben Carson is No Longer an Outsider Republican.  Rand Paul should differentiate from other Republicans by declaring that it is not a federal issue that needs to be decided in Washington.  If New York City determines that it needs a higher minimum wage for its workers in a high cost region then more power to Mayor deBlasio.  But that minimum wage would be way too high for a rural Mississippi, heck, even a rural New York town as well so that Governor Cuomo should be careful.

Focus on the Kurds

Two headlines, A Journey in a Free Syria and Kurds Open an Offensive against ISIS, show the value of a motivated and unified political union, Iraq's Kurdistan region with its pesh merga. The Kurds require a support that supersedes the interests of Turkey and Shia dominated Baghdad keeping them from creating a nation from pieces of Northern Iraq and Syria.

Fewer Laws

Randy Barnett's  Structure of Liberty chapter regarding problems of knowledge makes very clear that when the public has widespread and good knowledge of the law that courses of action that will lead to legal conflict are generally avoided making for a more harmonious society.  But as more laws are written, many countermanding other laws, the complexity confuses and diminishes knowledge. Counter intuitively, more laws create disharmony.

Carried Interest is a Racket

Rand Paul just sent me an email saying that the Federal Reserve is a racket, true but he should lower his sights to a real crony racket that he could be a part of fixing, carried interest.  Its a niche carved out by creative accountants and lawyers whereby income is converted to asset by a double talk sleight of hand that avoids the tax payment normally due on such a conversion.  That this little tax wiggle benefits hugely very few people, definitely fewer than one thousand and probably just a few hundred, the likes of Mitt Romney partly explains these people's tax payment at rates of one third to their secretaries.  Carried interest has a very strong lobby defending it. Hillary benefits from this lobby and so do the big money raising G. O. P candidates, Jeb Bush, Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio.  

Obama did TransCanada a Favor

By rejecting the Keystone XL pipeline.  Its obvious under today's oil pricing conditions that tar sands oil is uneconomic. The infrastructure proposal to deliver the product to where it is not wanted, Texas refineries are full to the brim with heavy oil from Venezuela and Mexico, was running on pure political bull handedness these past few years as North Dakota's light crude from fracking superseded oil sands from a pure profitability perspective.  That TransCanada could not make the decision to kill the project despite the same sunken costs that Shell had to consider when dropping its Artic Ocean operation recently shows a indecisiveness that as an investor should make one steer clear of.  Obama made the decision for them but by using easily overturned arguments it will drive TransCanada's  infighters to pursue in court their right to fund uneconomic projects.  It will be a Pyrrhic victory.

Exxon Lied on Climate?

Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman shouldn't have started this charge at a windmill.  A reasonable public understands that an oil company will presents one side and outsiders, such as The Sierra Club, the other. Prosecuting economic cheats such as those selling rice as vitamin supplements to unwitting consumers is very clearly a good work of the Attorney General's office. This action on the other hand is the over reach of a self important individual.

Author's note:  In reading Randy Barnett's The Structure of Liberty, Justice and the Rule of Law chapter on the partiality problem he finds its best that two sides of a legal action argue their case as best as their lawyers can for justice and the public good.  Outside of court free speech help's direct self or corporate partiality.

Dry Manhattan

Ruling in Mexico Sets the Stage for legalization of Marijuana is a tipping point to the costliest and most destructive "do gooder" imperative ever devised by a body politic.  Dry Manhattan: Prohibition in New York City by Michael Lerner chronicles that in 1919, the United States embarked on the country's boldest attempt at moral and social reform: Prohibition. The 18th Amendment to the Constitution prohibited the manufacture, transportation, and sale of alcohol around the country. ... Google Books .  The opus covering what our drug laws have done to South America has yet to be written. Lerner's book on New York in the 1920's is a quick primer.

China's Crony Capitalism

China Tempers Its Growth Expectations, to 6.5% a Year. Its seems like such a made up number by a committee of insiders unrestrained by press analysis. China Entices, but doing business Proves Hard on the other hand describes the dead hand of connected insiders.  China's current economic malaise is more than a bump in the road along the path toward overtaking the U.S. economy. China's mania for controlling from the center smothers its growth prospects because its incapable of re-inventing itself after taking advantage of the low hanging fruit of the past quarter century.

Canada's Vietnam

A classic mistake of business and government is trying to recover sunken costs, in Vietnam for example Lyndon Johnson had spent so much of the "cream of the nation's youth" that there was no possibility of turning back and dishonoring those who were lost.  Well, the tar sands of Alberta are Canada's Vietnam.  Steven Harper's Conservative Party is thoroughly out and discredited for the financial and ecological morass that development of the tars sands has created and TransCanada asking for the suspension of the Keystone XL Pipeline's review is part of the retreat.  Every barrel's extracted cost to tar sands operators is so under priced at today's market that they are slowing and eventually will stop because they can't take it anymore. Building the pipeline is like building the bridge to nowhere. Approval by the Obama Administration would just force TransCanada to cancel the proposal.

No Politician Creates Jobs

Paul Krugman's Partisan Growth Gaps makes a startling admission: Democrats don't know what makes the economy grow.  Republicans on the other hand don't know either but won't admit to it.  The truth is that a good healthy economy bubbles up from below in an unpredictable manner as to what will succeed and what won't.  Both parties fail with top down economic policies which can't consider the unpredictable and therefore are bad bets.  

The Kurds are not Interested in Empire

The administration made the decision after abandoning the Pentagon’s failed efforts to train its own rebel army to take on the Islamic State in Syria, and it underscored a shift toward reliance on Kurdish allies, the most effective forces working with the United States. In effect, the move is an experiment: Can the small contingent of American military personnel make a difference in guiding local fighters? If so, officials made it clear they would consider sending more Americans. (A covert train-and-equip effort run by the C.I.A. is still very much active.)

The first test is likely to come in Raqqa, the Islamic State’s stronghold in Syria. American officials hope the commandos will help the Kurds and Syrian Arab allies put pressure on the Islamic State, which is also known as ISIS, ISIL or Daesh, by cutting off routes into the city and targeting leaders. Eventually, they would try to recapture the city outright.

“Ultimately, Raqqa has to be retaken and returned to its citizens and to a decent way of life, which they’re not enjoying under the barbaric rule of ISIL now,” Defense Secretary Ashton B. Carter told reporters during a refueling stop in Alaska on his way to Asia.

The plan is missing the prime element, a political union to govern Al-Raqqah.  It was a Sunni, Shia and Christian city with no Kurdish.  The Kurds will not fight and then administer a city that is not their own and dissipate their effort of for a nation of their own to do the allies' bidding.