MCViewPoint

Opinion from a Libertarian ViewPoint

Archive for the ‘Uncategorized’ Category

The cabin with the roses by the door

Posted by M. C. on February 1, 2023

A great old tune from Dick Burnett of kentucky who recorded in the 1920s with fiddler Leonard Rutherford. Burnett also penned man of constant sorrow, later made known by Ralph Stanley and the obrother soundtrack. As always, i encourage you to listen to the originals too!

Brett Howland

The Gatekeeper of Traditional Music

Be seeing you

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged: | Leave a Comment »

TGIF: Don’t Blame Wokeism on the Unfinished Liberal Revolution | The Libertarian Institute

Posted by M. C. on February 1, 2023

Contrary to Hazony, liberalism doesn’t says it has the one true way for everyone to live. Rather, it says all people ought to be free to decide how to live. Liberalism, which seeks to limit state power, doesn’t entail imperialism because that would expand state aggression both domestically and abroad. Thus “liberal imperialism” is a contradiction in terms. Nationalist imperialism, however, is not.

https://libertarianinstitute.org/articles/tgif-dont-blame-revolution/

by Sheldon Richman 

hazony

The National Conservatives are not only wrong about genuine liberalism — that is, libertarianism — they also apparently haven’t bothered to read up on what they think they’re attacking. Take Yoram Hazony, author of Conservatism: A Rediscovery, who recently appeared on the YouTube show Triggernometry. As Hazony makes clear, for him it’s straw men all the way down.

Throughout the interview he uses the word liberalism for the philosophy he blames for saddling the West with wokeism. That’s unfortunate because people use that term in many ways. What definition does he have in mind? I think we can infer that he means something like libertarianism (and not, say, Nancy Pelosi’s “liberalism”) since he faults the philosophy for its powerful commitment to free markets. Although he’s not thoroughly opposed to free enterprise, he favors a government strong enough to step in when the “national interest” (ascertained by whom?) requires it. National conservatism without a commitment to government power to override the free market would be like a square circle.

Like other right-wing critics of libertarianism, Hazony believes that Western societies are in the woke soup because Enlightenment liberalism is intrinsically prostrate before its leftist adversaries. Why would that be? In his eyes, it’s because liberalism’s only message is this: do your own thing. He told Frances Foster and Konstantin Kisin:

If you [liberals, presumably] raise children and you tell them, “Look, do whatever you want. Do whatever feels good. Use your own reason, exercise your own thinking, and come to your own conclusions, and you don’t give them anything else, a great many people, maybe the majority, end up stuck and unable to make the decisions among, you know, what exactly is it I’m supposed to do and what is it I’m supposed to believe.

I have no idea why Hazony thinks that liberalism teaches people to do whatever feels good, or that, as he says elsewhere, that freedom is “all they need.” One of the first things liberal parents would teach their children is to respect other people’s rights: specifically, don’t hit other kids and don’t take their stuff without asking.

By the way, “do whatever feels good” is hardly the same as “use your own reason, exercise your own thinking, and come to your own conclusions.” How does Hazony not see that?

Further, using your own reason does not mean: don’t read history, don’t learn from others’ experiences, don’t absorb the moral and political lessons of those who came before. Liberalism is not about the individual’s starting from scratch and reinventing the wheel. Rather, it means that you shouldn’t blindly accept what others tell you. Use your head. We have much to learn from other people and other ages. So what’s Hazony’s real beef with liberalism?

As this makes clear, he clearly doesn’t know what liberalism is, but he’s certain he knows what it has wrought:

See the rest here

Be seeing you

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged: , | Leave a Comment »

NATO’s ‘war against Russia’ inches ‘closer to direct conflict’

Posted by M. C. on February 1, 2023

After all, it is mainly Ukrainians paying the price of the “war against Russia” fueled from afar.

https://mate.substack.com/p/natos-war-against-russia-inches-closer

Aaron Maté

(US M1 Abrams tanks at a training site in Germany, 2018. U.S. Army photo by Staff Sgt. Sharon Matthias / 22nd Mobile Public Affairs Detachment)

Since the first week of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, French President Emmanuel Macron has repeated a mantra on behalf of his NATO partners: “We are not at war with Russia.”

Nearly one year in, that notion has officially been dispelled.  

“We are fighting a war against Russia,” German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said this week.

Baerbock was trying to assuage NATO allies’ frustration over German reluctance to send Leopard 2 tanks into Ukraine. She can now claim vindication. In a reversal of its initial position, the German government has announced it that will deliver Leopard 2 tanks to the Ukrainian army.

To overcome German Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s jitters, the White House engaged in an about-face of its own, approving the shipment of 31 US-made M1 Abrams tanks to Ukraine. Scholz had insisted on conditioning any German tanks to a similar US commitment. Up until this week, Pentagon chief Lloyd Austin was “dead set against providing” the M1s, and declared there to be “no linkage between providing M1s and providing Leopards.” Austin had argued that the M1s are too cumbersome for Ukraine, requiring costly jet fuel, heavy maintenance, and lengthy training.

Just last month, a senior US defense official declared that “even one M1 was out of the question,” according to the Washington Post. When used by US troops in Iraq, the M1s were “hard for us to sustain and maintain,” the official noted. For Ukraine, “it would be impossible.” Even last week, senior Pentagon official Colin Kahl dismissed the prospect of sending the “very complicated” M1, because “we should not be providing the Ukrainians systems they can’t repair, they can’t sustain, and that they, over the long term, can’t afford.”

As Gen. Mark Milley learned when he came out in favor of diplomacy with Russia to end the fighting, the Pentagon’s outlook is no match for Washington’s proxy war fever. The White House reversed course, Politico notes, after “a parade of Democrats and Republicans” in Congress “pressured the Biden administration to grant Berlin’s request to send U.S. tanks first.” What the Pentagon “was not taking into enough account,” the New York Times reports, citing a US official, “was the intense fear among European governments of doing anything to provoke Russia without having the cover of the United States doing the same thing first.” When it comes to provoking Russia, the US is undoubtedly first.

See the rest here

Be seeing you

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged: , , | 1 Comment »

Social Contract Theory Idiocy: What Contract? – LewRockwell

Posted by M. C. on February 1, 2023

Have you voluntarily and knowingly delegated by active and legal contract all your decisions about your life, family, war, taxation (theft), government mandated schooling, health care, employment, property ownership, self-defense, licensing, and every other aspect of life to this illegitimate government? Are you just a slave and a resource element of the state? Do you have any real desire to be free? The state does not work or rule by contract, it does not have the consent of all the governed; it is the epitome of force, violence, extortion, torture, theft, and murder.

https://www.lewrockwell.com/2023/01/gary-d-barnett/social-contract-theory-idiocy-what-contract/

By Gary D. Barnett

“And yet we have what purports, or professes, or is claimed, to be a contract—the Constitution—made eighty years ago, by men who are now all dead, and who never had any power to bind us, but which (it is claimed) has nevertheless bound three generations of men, consisting of many millions, and which (it is claimed) will be binding upon all the millions that are to come; but which nobody ever signed, sealed, delivered, witnessed, or acknowledged; and which few persons, compared with the whole number that are claimed to be bound by it, have ever read, or even seen, or ever will read, or see.”

Lysander Spooner, No Treason: The Constitution of No Authority

The very idea of any ‘social contract’ for any large group of individuals is asinine on its face. It is an impossibility to be sure if freedom is considered, and that is why constitutions, (‘social contracts’) which supposedly require individual explicit or ‘tacit’ consent, neither of which are valid in this context, are completely worthless, and only deceit by the state. Social contracts require that some or most freedoms be relinquished, and submission to the false authority of a ruler or ruling class be accepted for the ‘common good.’ This is usually based on only a majority ‘decision,’ or not, due to the corrupt and evil nature of voting, for the purpose of gaining protection for only those rights considered remaining, and state-supported in the bogus contract. In other words, natural rights are eliminated in favor of ‘legal’ rights created and administered by the state for the sole purpose of monetary gain and mass control. This can only mean that all natural rights are disallowed and non-existent’ in this lie called a social contract.

The assumed starting point for social contract creation in theory is to examine the human condition absent a political order. From here, social contract supporters would seek (assume) to argue that ‘rational’ individuals would voluntarily give up their natural freedom in favor of consent to a governmental (political) ruling system. Thomas Hobbes’ approach to the “state of nature” circumstance and social contracts was telling of his desire to see humanity ruled over by counterfeit documents shifting power from the individual to the state. Hobbes said that in a state of nature, or freedom of the individual, would be a horrible situation where everyone would have unlimited rights to pillage, plunder, rape, and murder, and endless war of all against all would be the result. His solution to his made-up claims, was for all to establish what he called “civil society” through a social contract in order to gain security by giving up natural rights and accepting an absolute sovereign made up of one man (king) or an assembly of men (oligarchy). He saw absolute government as the only option.

The meaning of the term “contract” in its most basic form, is an agreement between two or more parties that defines the terms of an exchange. The five major characteristics for any contract to be valid are:

1) An offer and terms: One party makes an offer to another, which includes a description of terms that the offering party makes to the other, that he is legally bound to honor.

2) An acceptance of an offer is necessary for any contract to be valid.

3) For any contract to be valid, every single individual involved needs to know,

comprehend, and fully understand the entire agreement and every obligation associated with such contract.

4) Some form of consideration (something of value) is necessary for a contract to be legally valid. Any consideration has to be legal, as illegal consideration or activity nullifies the contract.

5) All parties involved in any contract must enter this contract with the clear intent to set up a formal agreement and accept all terms as legally binding.

With this in mind, attempt if you can, to fathom the idea of a magical contract, completely unsigned and legally unaccepted by each party, without a full description of exact terms to be followed. Consider that this contract has to be fully understood by each and every individual involved, and that some form of legal consideration must be present and accepted by each party agreeing to this document. This contract in order to be valid must be set up with clear intent, and with acceptance of each and every term as binding on all parties.

Now consider the fake contract called the law of the land, and described as the U.S. Constitution. This is simply an invalid social contract that does not meet any definition of a legal contract whatsoever, and is assumed to have been accepted, understood, with valid consideration, by 330 million individuals. No one has signed it, no one has legally accepted it, few if any understand it, it can be changed arbitrarily by the so-called contract offeror at any time without approval of each (or any) of those involved, and no accepted consideration is forthcoming. There is no clear intent, actually no intent at all, of any formal agreement and acceptance. In fact, it is completely illegal, and therefore not binding in any regard on any individual.

The state in fact is a scam. It is based on this false notion of an illegal ‘social contract,’ written and forced on society over 240 years ago. It is as illegal now as it was then, and should be, at least in any free society, completely unenforceable. But this is not a free society, and even though in past centuries, freedom was more prevalent, this has never been a truly free country. If government and rule exist, freedom cannot exist.

The entirety of rule in this country and many others, is based on the evil and fraudulent concept of ‘tacit’ (implied without question) approval of an illegal and fictitious social contract called a constitution. “This theory of an implicit social contract holds that by remaining in the territory controlled by some society, which usually has a government, people give consent to join that society and be governed by its government if any. This consent is what gives ‘legitimacy’ to such a government.” Nothing could be more ridiculous and underhanded than such a concept as this one.

The very idea of government in this country is completely dependent on the false illusion that the social contract called the Constitution solidifies and justifies that ‘consent’ for this heinous government is legitimate, because blind ‘consent’ is assumed by that same government. 

See the rest here

Be seeing you

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged: , | Leave a Comment »

Bad Russians

Posted by M. C. on January 31, 2023

Be seeing you

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged: | Leave a Comment »

Revealed: Mass Media Complicity in “Russian Disinformation” Fraud, w/ Matt Taibbi | SYSTEM UPDATE #30

Posted by M. C. on January 31, 2023

https://rumble.com/v27doi6–system-update-30.html

Be seeing you

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged: , | Leave a Comment »

The Real Disinformation Was The ‘Russia Disinformation’ Hoax

Posted by M. C. on January 31, 2023

https://rumble.com/v27rshi-the-real-disinformation-was-the-russia-disinformation-hoax.html

Be seeing you

Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a Comment »

Celebrities Protect The Interests Of The Empire: Notes From The Edge Of The Narrative Matrix

Posted by M. C. on January 31, 2023

Even if you believe that all this nuclear brinkmanship is justified and good, you still need to fully acknowledge the reality of the risk and the unfathomable horrors that it would unleash upon our world. And you need to do it with all the respect and solemnity the subject deserves.

Caitlin Johnstone

https://open.substack.com/pub/caitlinjohnstone/p/celebrities-protect-the-interests?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android

If you say you oppose Russia because you’re an anti-imperialist but you don’t oppose the US empire for its role in starting and perpetuating this war, then you’re a liar. You don’t oppose Russia because you’re an anti-imperialist, you oppose Russia because you’re an imperialist.

The only people who say “Putin can end this war at any time by withdrawing” are those who deny the US empire’s aggressions which led to this conflict, which is just a nonsense garbage position based on lies. They don’t actually want peace, they just want victory for the empire. The real unbiased position which supports peace is wanting both Russia and the western empire to begin engaging in diplomacy, de-escalation and detente to end this war. But empire simps will call you treasonously biased if you support anything other than total Russian defeat.

This dopey propaganda-addled notion that the west did nothing wrong and Putin attacked Ukraine solely because he is evil and hates freedom actually prevents peace from happening. If one side only acknowledges the reality of the aggressions of the other side, peace is impossible. If you don’t understand how a war was started and perpetuated, then you can’t understand how peace can be started and perpetuated. The empire deliberately works to prevent the public from obtaining this understanding, because the empire wants war.

It’s not okay for grown adults to act like Putin is just running around invading countries willy nilly because he’s a crazed madman. You’ve got a whole internet of information at your fingertips. Use it.

It’s impossible to overstate how much our society is shaped by the fact that those who are given the most influence and the largest platforms will experience our status quo systems as working very nicely and have a vested interest in preserving those systems which benefit them. The media-owning, culture-manufacturing class of the super-wealthy elevates people to wealth and celebrity who look like they will be good protectors of their class interests. Those people will necessarily speak fondly of the status quo political systems which let them be rich.

These are the people who put on all the shows, movies and music almost everyone consumes, thereby engineering mainstream culture to the benefit of the super wealthy. It shapes the way the people think, speak, act and vote. What they feel entitled to. What they think is possible.

A rich celebrity who makes millions of dollars a year in a fun, easy and egoically gratifying job is not going to be spotlighting all the lives who are being destroyed by the status quo systems which elevated them. They’re not going to favor the revolutionary changes that are needed. They’re not going to be calling for a massive, sweeping overhaul of the systems which are crushing ordinary people to death and creating widespread misery; at most they’re going to be telling you to vote Democrat or Republican and quibbling about minor disagreements on tax rates. But these are the people with the loudest voices in our society — not just the loudest, but many orders of magnitude more amplified and influential than the voices of the ordinary people who are suffering under existing systems. These loudly-amplified rich celebrities shape and direct mainstream culture.

Be seeing you

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged: , , , | Leave a Comment »

Move Over, Jayson Blair: Meet Hamilton 68, the New King of Media Fraud

Posted by M. C. on January 30, 2023

The Twitter Files reveal that one of the most common news sources of the Trump era was a scam, making ordinary American political conversations look like Russian spywork

Examining further, Twitter execs were shocked. The accounts Hamilton 68 claimed were linked to “Russian influence activities online” were not only overwhelmingly English-language (86%), but mostly “legitimate people,” largely in the U.S., Canada, and Britain. Grasping right away that Twitter might be implicated in a moral outrage, they wrote that these account-holders “need to know they’ve been unilaterally labeled Russian stooges without evidence or recourse.”

Matt Taibbi

https://open.substack.com/pub/taibbi/p/move-over-jayson-blair-meet-hamilton?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android

Former FBI counterintelligence agent and “disinformation” expert Clint Watts, the spokesman for Hamilton

Ambitious media frauds Stephen Glass and Jayson Blair crippled the reputations of the New Republic and New York Times, respectively, by slipping years of invented news stories into their pages. Thanks to the Twitter Files, we can welcome a new member to their infamous club: Hamilton 68.

If one goes by volume alone, this oft-cited neoliberal think-tank that spawned hundreds of fraudulent headlines and TV news segments may go down as the single greatest case of media fabulism in American history. Virtually every major news organization in America is implicated, including NBC, CBS, ABC, PBS, CNN, MSNBC, The New York Times and the Washington PostMother Jones alone did at least 14 stories pegged to the group’s “research.” Even fact-checking sites like Politifact and Snopes cited Hamilton 68 as a source.

Hamilton 68 was and is a computerized “dashboard” designed to be used by reporters and academics to measure “Russian disinformation.” It was the brainchild of former FBI agent (and current MSNBC “disinformation expert”) Clint Watts, and backed by the German Marshall Fund and the Alliance for Securing Democracy, a bipartisan think-tank. The latter’s advisory panel includes former acting CIA chief Michael Morell, former Ambassador to Russia Michael McFaul, former Hillary for America chair John Podesta, and onetime Weekly Standard editor Bill Kristol.

See the rest here

Be seeing you

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged: , , , , | Leave a Comment »

Dailywire Article – ‘I Think He’s Right’: Top House Foreign Affairs Republican Agrees With U.S. General’s War With China Prediction

Posted by M. C. on January 30, 2023

I don’t know about Fetterman but trying to convince MIC budget busting warparty water carriers like PA’s Kelly and Casey not to go to war will be tough sledding.

“Seth Jones of the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) published a report last week, which follows a CSIS wargame scenario that pointed out that in a conflict with China, U.S. arms, including long-range, precision-guided munitions, could run empty in one week.”

Makes one wonder where all the money goes.

https://www.dailywire.com/news/i-think-hes-right-top-house-foreign-affairs-republican-agrees-with-u-s-generals-war-with-china-prediction

By  Brandon Drey

U.S. Representative Michael McCaul (R-TX) said Sunday the odds of a conflict with China by 2025 “are very high” after a four-star Air Force General warned officers that he sees a war on the horizon over Taiwan.

McCaul, who chairs the House Foreign Affairs Committee, told “Fox News Sunday” he agreed with the recent statement made by Air Force General Mike Minihan, which noted the military official believes U.S. forces “will fight in 2025.”

“I hope he’s wrong . . .” McCaul said. “I think he’s right, though, unfortunately.”

The top GOP lawmaker said China could look at a military invasion of Taiwan if President Xi Jinping of the Chinese Communist Party fails to influence Taiwan’s presidential election in 2024, which takes place a year from today, and further China’s efforts on its so-called “reunification” with the island.

Taiwan, officially the Republic of China, has been independently governed by China since 1949. China holds a “One China” policy, asserting that Taiwan is a part of China.

“We have to be prepared for this,” McCaul said. “And it could happen … as long as Biden is in office — projecting weakness as he did with Afghanistan that led to Putin invading Ukraine — that the odds are very high we could see a conflict with China and Taiwan and the Indo-Pacific.”

Seth Jones of the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) published a report last week, which follows a CSIS wargame scenario that pointed out that in a conflict with China, U.S. arms, including long-range, precision-guided munitions, could run empty in one week.

See the rest here

Be seeing you

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged: , , , | Leave a Comment »