@BillKristol pushed George W. Bush into Iraq and now Who? into Presidential Race

Neocon Bill Kristol pushed a gullible George W. Bush into Iraq. If David French accepts Kristol’s push into the arena then his first decision will be the wrong one because he lacks recognition, money and the political experience to know his candidacy is futile and meaningless despite Bill’s casual reassurances.

Amish prove Libertarian's call for no government is not for chaos.

The G.O.P. attempt to enlist the Amish for Trump is laughable primarily because it shows the disconnect elites have with the voters.  First and foremost the Amish don't endorse, rather they stay out of politics so completely I doubt they are registered to vote.  If they were so inclined then the photo ID to register and vote would be a problem, but its not because they don't vote.  Second the Amish are about piety, community and a simple way of life. Trump's lifestyle on the other hand is the polar opposite. Finally, think about it! The Amish are an example of self governed libertarian life. No interaction with Washington Federal or Pennsylvania State government. No local need for police, schools or judicial service because the elders organize the community to take care of it.  The Amish prove that the Libertarian's call for no government is not a call for chaos.

Apple needs to shed its fortune or it will choke on it

$Billion Stakes on the Menu brings up Warren Buffet's new stake in Apple and the advise he could give regarding capital allocation, which Apple desperately needs. 300 $billion in the bank and the reality that whatever next big thing to invent will take less than a billion in cash to do it saddles it with a risk adverse phalanx of finance geeks who will snuff out the company's creativity.  It would be much better if that capital were given back to its shareholders, like Warren Buffet, who could then allocate it more efficiently and liberate Apple back to a lean, mean and creative position. The problem of course is that most of that money is locked away in foreign accounts and can not be repatriated without paying a corporate tax. So, why not have those smart finance geeks figure out a way to distribute dividends directly to shareholders without first repatriating the profit? It couldn't be much harder than the schemes they used to put the profits overseas with in the first place.    

Memo to Sierra Club: Capital allocators tell Exxon expensive oil is bad business

Greens in Pinstripe Suits are the investment advisers doing more for the planet's CO2 emissions using economic incentive instead of the Sierra Club and others moral persuasion. The fact is that investing in expensive oil extraction is bad business for shareholders.  And in the case of Exxon Mobil, the subject of the The Economist article referenced above, there are investment groups suggesting to management that more investment in big expensive projects is bad for shareholders and that the company should throttle back and distribute capital back to shareholders to more efficiently allocate elsewhere. A similar decision is that of Shell's abandoning a multi billion oil rig project for the Arctic because of poor returns. Currently Canada's oil tar sands industry is at a juncture where the the forest fires have burned down a good portion of capacity so that a rational decision would be not to re-invest and rebuild.  Let's see.

Trump gathers globalization's losers, Libertarians its winners

Eduardo Porter's "We've Seen the Trump Phenomenon Before" describes world wide resistance to globalization by those who have lived to long on the losing side. Both the Republican and Democrat establishments are shocked by the outsider campaigns, where Donald Trump succeeded and Bernie Sanders would have if there were no super delegates giving the Democrat insider an insurmountable edge. Apparently top down establishment candidates are not trusted. Contrast that to Libertarian's respect for the individual with a bottom up ideology flourishing in this interconnected world.  

Trump Shooting Skeet would miss every Shot

When shooting its important to lead the target. It's the same in politics but Trumps's principal straw man is now the subject of Atlantic Monthly: "China's Twilight Years"

Not Surprising Wealthy Resists Trump's Angry Base. Take Trade for Example

Donor's Aversion to Trump Clouds Big Funding Goal is not surprising because wealthy resist campaign's support from angry base. Let's take trade for example.  The Chamber of Commerce business interests side of the G.O.P. support free trade and the angry base who feel displaced by globalization don't. It's difficult to fathom big money being given to Trump by business interests who support free trade and freer immigration.

Johnson and Weld are the sane rational candidates the G.O.P. wish they had

They acted on those ideas as governors, with the usual accommodations to political reality. Johnson was called “America’s boldest governor” by the Economist for his push for school choice. And that was before he came out for legalizing marijuana and moving away from the war on drugs. He vetoed more than 700 spending and regulation bills and left the state with a $1 billion surplus. Weld, a two term Governor of Massachusetts who was re-elected with a massive majority in the Kennedy Democrat stronghold, cut taxes, constrained state spending, and created a domestic partners program for gay state employees.

For New England Republicans William Weld is a Credible VP @LPNational Candidate

William Weld, a two term Republican Governor of Massachusetts, is a compelling Vice Presidential nominee for the Libertarian Party who brings a popular and credible leadership that thinking New England Republican's find missing in Donald Trump. Weld is a Republican who can be described as fiscally conservative without the evangelical stridency that is breaking the G.O.P. apart today. That Weld was later denied an Ambassador position by the likes of Jesse Helms, the late Senator from North Carolina, is a ringing endorsement for this graduate of Communist Hill.          

Regal trappings, ad hoc decision making. Trump The Man who would be King

Did Hari Sreenivassen on the PBS Newshour say, "Trump is walking towards a coronation"? Let's see; regal trappings, ad hoc decision making, and blind faith in him despite the evidence to the contrary.  Isn't he already King? Our Founding Fathers declared their Independence to the King of England and today we are on the verge of putting one back on the throne.  

Economic illiteracy is the tragedy of Venezuela, Cuba, Argentina and Brazil

Bernie Sanders is correct by using Scandinavian Socialism as an example to be admired because it is run by those with enviable economic literacy to allow free market capitalism to prosper to tax and fund the social benefit they provide.  Venezuela, Cuba, Argentina and Brazil are examples of illiteracy gone horribly wrong.  

Trump is such a problem for Constitution Originalists

Trump thinks his sister would make a good Supreme Court Justice. Maybe Mitch McConnell should reconsider his no SCOTUS nominee this year because Maryanne Trump Barry is no originalist.  

Ted Cruz is supposed to be super smart: What's with this moronic editorial?

I haven't got time for Ted Cruz: The Mullahs and There Missiles so let a selected comment do it.

Terry McKenna

 Dover, N.J. 1 hour ago

It is both funny and sad to read this. We spent much of the last 75 years supporting the extreme right wing Islamic state of Saudi Arabia. We overthrew a democratic government in Iran, an act the led to the enmity of the Iranian people, and was behind the seizing of hostages at the US embassy. One wonders why this is missing from Ted’s narrative?

We even went to war with Iraq with the belief that it would become a springboard to the spread of democracy in the middle east. Well we all know how that turned out.

Iran does fear us. Our many acts of aggression against them have made it clear that they do need nuclear weapons and a delivery system (missiles) to prevent the US from ever interfering in their land. Is their government terrible? Yes. Is it rational? Yes.

So we are where we are now, with limited options.

If Ted got his way, even this weak option would be gone.

If the US has any role in the middle east, it should be to serve our interests which are open shipping lanes for commerce. Especially for oil.

Israel may be more like us than Iran, but our interests are not served by ignoring US needs and goals.

Relavativty

Republican asshole or Muslim.

U.S. fracked its way to cleaner air. Market, not bureaucrats did it!

The proof to the claim that The U.S. has fracked its way to cleaner air is in The New York Times headline "Europe Is Trailing U.S. In Cutting Air Pollution" and Germany is the worst offender for two reasons:  First because to handle the inntermittency problem of solar and wind they forced the utilities they are bankrupting to go to the cheapest alternative, coal! Yes noxious particulate emitting coal.The second reason which only came to light recently is that Volkswagen's clean diesel is a lie. A lie that Europe has been blythley polluting with for years, something that never really took hold in the U.S.

When has Authoritarian power ever had self organized economic forces under control?

Politics: Power to the Party : "Just because the Party is in Control does not mean that it has things under control." When has authoritarian power ever had self organized economic forces under control?

Its un-American to mix Church and State.

What's Next for the Religious Right? Consider that this nation was founded on the separation of Church and State. It's what makes for a vibrant Church and State. Europe's government support of established denominations, on the other hand, is the example of how the state can reduce religion to an afterthought. So be like the Amish,  go back to your parish and minister your flock.

Fat Cats to Fund Trump's Billion Dollar Campaign. Really?

To the politically aware it is so retro myopic to consider the Supreme Court’s favoring free speech with their Citizens United  decision as a dangerous tool for wealthy influence peddling. Actually it’s more like lighting a stick of dynamite and forgetting to throw it.  Social media on the other hand proves the power of expert swarms self organizing contributors to fund, volunteer and elect.  If anything 2015/16 has proven that fat cat money is ballot poison. Consider the hundreds of millions raised and wasted by Republican candidates for an internecine battle. At this point the money has been spent and now Donald Trump, the man who ran because he could without need for money, needs to raise a billion plus just to run a so so campaign against Hillary Clinton.  So, imagine you are a fat cat who contributed greatly early on.  Are you happy about what your money got? Are you confident about what additional money contributed now will get you?

Germany's act of kindness stops at pathway Countries' gross discord

'Your right to throw a punch stops where my nose begins" is a rephrase to what Angela Merkel's generous interpretation of resolving a previous sin by the publicly proclaimed unlimited acceptance of immigrant's having thrown neighbor countries into turmoil.  "Austrian Chancellor to Resign Abruptly Amid Surge in Right-Wing Sentiment" is reaction from the huge sacrifice asked of Eastern European countries that are the pathway to Germany's largess. Yes, its ugly to bring it up but the discord generated can not be ignored, otherwise it get's uglier.  Germany has got to stop advertising itself as an immigrant's Utopia.

Saudi city of the future; a lot of waiting around for nothing

Watching tonight on PBS News Hour that Saudi Arabia is going to become a modern economy.  Yeah right. Saudi is an authoritarian regime running a crony capitalism kingdom milking the easiest oil to drawn in the world so for it to restructure into a modern economy and throttle back its dependence on oil, like all it takes is a 30 year old prince's say so, is the delusion depicted in the Tom Hanks movie: "A Hologram for the King" as the Saudi city of the future; a lot of waiting around for nothing.

We have met the enemy and he is us

D. W. Duncan, 79, Vietnam  Veteran and Critic, Dies, actually seven years ago. Its a testament to the New York Times to put up this obituary when they found out despite these many years having past.  What's pertinent about Duncan's antiwar protest was the observation of how motivated the Vietcong were in contrast to the South Vietnamese regular army who deserted and some even joined the other side and the more money and weapons the U.S. put into the effort to stop Ho Chi Minh, the worse it got. It was as if we never studied George Washington's strategy through our revolutionary war with Britain to wear them out so its baffling that we don't understand today how an indigenous motivated force can wear us out in Afghanistan or Iraq.  Its baffling how we draw on military power rather than political power so that we ignore real and decent political power with a motivated militia that can be a building block to pacify the Middle East but sacrifice our blood and treasure for an inane Domino theory in Vietnam or self inflicted myopic hurdle to keep nations in civil war together; nations that have reached a critical mass of hate and revenge so that they will explode no matter how tight a lid we try to keep on them.  

Intolerance in Academia Makes it Intellectually Weak

Yesterday I reviewed comments on an Upshot article "Presidential Campaign Myths on The Economy" by N. Gregory Mankiw that seem to skew very contrary to the article's point because the author was described as Conservative.  It was interesting because I came upon the article from Robert Reich's tweet where he agreed with its conclusions and which comes to the point on Nicholas Kristof's "Confessions of Liberal Intolerance" in academia. I congratulate Robert Reich, an economist best described as a Liberal, for agreeing with a Conservative making a rational argument. It gives him credibility as a fair judge.  Intolerance of every argument from the other side makes your viewpoint weak, wherever you are coming from.   

Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders are right about Carried Interest

Gretchen Morgenson's article on Carried Interest in today's Sunday Times Business Section doesn't mention Hillary's problem with her million dollar speaking fees to Wall Street.  In the annals of Crony Capitalism and Rent Seeking in Washington this special benefit which breaks all accounting rules switching income to the asset side of the ledger with a wink wink to the IRS has got to be the most egregious and self serving for the fewest. Can there be a hundred individual Americans who benefit greatly by this?

Memo to @BillKristol Party Building like Nation Building, Money and Arms not sufficient

Watching Bill Kristol cavalierly propose names in a 3rd party attempt to counter Donald J. Trump certain nomination in the Republican convention reminds one that he was a Neocon who endorsed George W. Bush's unilateral takeover of Iraq without having thought through the consequences.  Foremost is the hurdle to get a 3rd party candidate on the ballot.  Right now members of Connecticut's chapter of the Libertarian Party are volunteering to get voter signatures on a petition to put our yet to be determined candidates, The Libertarian National Convention is at the end of the month in Orlando Florida, on the ballot. Currently there is no other minor party, Secretary of the State of Connecticut's descriptor, making the same effort nor is there any other party making a unified effort to be registered in all of the other states.  To form a new group out of the blue to field another minor party candidate would require more than unlimited Bloomberg money, it requires a grassroots effort, an effort untainted by big authoritarian money.

Barry Goldwater's The Conscience of a Conservative is pure Libertarian Party today

Listening to Montana Democrat Senator Jon Tester on NPR this morning and found his observation: "Democrat, Independent or Republican we are all a little bit Libertarian out here in Montana with regard to our privacy."  Bingo! There is a future for Barry Goldwater's western style The Conscience of a Conservative message which is pure Libertarian Party today.

Both Trump and Sanders Would have Prevailed under G.O.P. primary rules

Nate Cohn's Upshot piece "What I Got Wrong about Donald Trump" shows a lot of wrong assumptions.  It wasn't the seventeen opponents diffusing money and influence otherwise Jeb Bush would have prevailed. In retrospect it was the anti-establishment campaigns that resonated this year and if Democrats had some winner take all primaries and no super delegates, a very establishment group, just like Republicans then Sanders would have prevailed as well.

Senator Jeff Flake a Goldwater Republican Libertarians would Welcome

Just heard Senator Jeff Flake of Arizona on NPR lamenting Donald J. Trump's certain nomination this summer to lead the Republican Party. The Senator is the sort of decent Republican with strong conservative values of Goldwater, a western Libertarian view that doesn't wear religion on its sleeve, that the Libertarian Party would welcome in our ranks.  

The party of Lincoln perpetrating the worst deal possible, one based on lies.

Donald Trump opens every speech with the worst deals ever, such as trade with China.  Yet as an alert businessman he knows that China is in an economic crisis of transition from manufacturing to services so that the jobs taking from the American economy is over. In business the best deals are win win, where both sides benefit. Trump's art of the deal is one where he comes out as the clear winner and in many of his bankruptcies other side is the loser. As the creature that mestasisized from the lies and denial of Mitch McConnell's attempt at making Obama a one term President he has now taken over the party of Lincoln to perpetrate the worst possible deal on the country, one based on lies.

The Party of False Choices now has one as its Nominee

When Mitch McConnell, the G.O.P. leader in the Senate, said in October 2010 that “the single most important thing we want to achieve is for President Obama to be a one-term president,” he described the Republicans’ dominant strategy since 2008. The party stopped thinking seriously about market-based alternatives. Into that emptiness entered Trump, like an invasive species.

G.O.P. Reality Distortion: Trump's Fact and Policy free Campaign Success

David Brooks' The Choice Explosion fails to add false choice in the mix, for example Donald J. Trump. He proves the lie to many G.O.P. orthodoxies, such as tax cuts for the wealthy grows earnings for middle and low income earners, and feeds off their political tactic of finding everything wrong with Obama, even denying the administration's progress with economic and job growth that Romney, if he had been elected in 2012, would have been proud to tout today as a great success. The political reality of the right has been so distorted that a real mandate is difficult to discern. It's why Trump's policy and fact free campaign does so well.

G.O.P. must teach Evangelicals mixing Church and State weakens both

The G.O.P. needs to teach its evangelical right that this country was founded on the principle of separating church and state, a lesson taken from the dysfunction of the European regimes we came from and which is that mixing the two weakens both the state and religion.  George Will says that "If Trump Nominated, Then G.O.P. must keep him out of the White House" and then makes the case for Ted Cruz. For conservatives Trump lacks ideology other than for himself. But while Cruz's study and adherence to our Constitution is formidable and on the face of it attractive to conservatives he forgot the inalienable right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness of the individual to which the Constitution was drawn up to serve and protect. His full embrace of evangelical nonsense is even more destructive to conservatives than Trump's candidacy.

CIA does not recognize careless rich friend more dangerous than declared enemy

Watching CIA Director John Brennan's interview on Meet The Press this morning and was struck by his singular lack of intelligence with comments such as "its complicated" when referring to the Middle East. What complicates is not recognizing the lack of levers of power to will a peaceful resolution to the turmoil in the region.  He defends Obama's recent meeting in Saudi Arabia as a useful exchange among friends despite the snubs when their recent execution of a Shiite cleric and the bombing of Yemen civilians does more to incite chaos in the region and expose the Kingdom's lack of control.  Apparently there is no recognition at the CIA that a careless rich friend with many conflicting agendas is even a more dangerous to us than a declared enemy such as Iran.

What is the head of the CIA doing on a meet the press show, sell the administration's policy? Is that the CIA's purpose?