My new baseball book

As the World Series gets underway I have a new book out on Amazon and other sites.   It is my baseball memoir.  I hope you enjoy it or know someone who would.

https://www.amazon.com/Missing-Cutoff-Man-50-year-Baseball/dp/B0DGXC1YVR

I am embarrassed to be a Libertarian today

I have been a registered Libetarian since the first George Bush was President.

I have been an acting Libertartian since I was a kid.

Today, I am ashamed to tell someone that I belong to this party.

I received an email this morning from a friend who told me about some horrific posts made by Libertarians in, of all places, New Hampshire.

I will not repeat the ugly, stupid and antithesis to liberty posts here but suffice it to say, some idiots in the "Live Free or Die" state have absolutely no clue what it means to be a genuine lover of liberty.

The foundational principle of Libertarian thought is that we all have a natural, or God-given right to our life, or liberty and our property.  This applies to every human being on the planet, including Democratic candidate for President, Kamala Harris.

Since 2016 I have watched as many so-called Libertarians have voted for Donald Trump - a person who has very few Libertarian positions and a lot of statist, nationalistic and anti-freedom ones.

I did not vote for Trump in 2016 or 2020.  I will not vote for him this year.

But I am now leaning towards staying home on election day rather than vote for the candidate from my party.

This country is in big trouble.   The Republicans look nothing like the party of Ronald Reagan.    The Democrats continue to embrace the failure of socialism, and now I have people in my party calling for ending the life of another human being.

This disgusting use of social media comes from a twisted view of what liberty means.

On behalf of genuine liberty lovers all over the United States I would like to apologize to Kamala Harris.

My new tent camping book

 I wanted to share a link to a new book I have written that you might enjoy.

https://www.amazon.com/Tent-Wilderness-Journey-Misery-Adventure/dp/B0DD7FT7H5?ref_=ast_author_mpb

Tyranny in Venezuela

 I wanted to share this link to a story about a brave, liberty loving young woman in Venezuela and what has happened to her for standing up for her rights.

https://ladiesofliberty.org/maria-oporeza/

Kamala Harris Flunks basic Economics

This will not take long.... Kamala Harris is running on a platform that includes imposing nationwide price ceilings on groceries. 

Aside from the arrogance of believing she is an expert in what prices should look like, there are two incredibly stupid flaws with her plan. 

First, if the government forces food prices down in the name of "fairness" to consumers, it will cause food suppliers to reduce output. This is because if prices are below the direct and opportunity cost of supplying these goods, it would be irrational to continue to supply. 

Second, if prices are driven down artificially, consumers will try to buy more. The combination of reduced output and greater purchasing attempts will cause shortages. Just like in Venezuela. Just like when Nixon did this in the early 1970's. Just like in the former Soviet Union. 

Why propose something so economically idiotic then? 

When Richard Nixon came out with his plan to freeze food prices the voters were so happy that he was re-elected in a landslide. 

That is because the vast majority of voters are economically ignorant. So, if voters want low prices and they are ignorant about where prices come from, it makes perfect POLITICAL sense to propose price controls.

 And that is why she did it. 

Afterall, she can't actually believe price ceilings will work.....

Why Kamala Harris might be worse than Joe Biden

>What follows is from the July 22, 2024 Wall Street Journal As a senator, Harris supported Medicare for All, which would shift the healthcare system from private and employer-based insurance to a government-run program. 

But in 2020, during her run for the White House, she released a more moderate proposal to expand access to Medicare while keeping private insurance intact. And since joining Biden’s presidential ticket, Harris has backed his plan, which calls for building on the Affordable Care Act.On trade, Harris opposed two recent major trade deals that Biden supported, the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement and the Trans-Pacific Partnership. 

Harris was one of just 10 senators who voted against the USMCA, a renegotiated version of the North American Free Trade Agreement under the Trump administration, arguing the environmental provisions were insufficient. 

She also opposed TPP as a Senate candidate, arguing it didn’t do enough to protect the environment and worker regulations. Harris’s climate record has arguably been the most liberal part of her policy portfolio. She has backed the Green New Deal and supported banning fracking. Biden ran on a fracking ban, but only for oil and gas production from federal lands. 

As president, Biden did more to address climate change than any of his predecessors spending $1 trillion in tax credits, grants and loans for clean energy. As a presidential candidate, Harris proposed a full repeal of the 2017 tax cuts enacted by Trump and congressional Republicans.

 Biden as a candidate and as president has backed leaving in place the tax cuts for people making under $400,000 and fully paying for those extensions with new taxes on companies and high-income households. During her campaign, she also favored raising estate taxes. 

 While in the Senate, she proposed an expansive tax credit for lower-income and middle-income workers worth up to $3,000 for individuals and $6,000 for married couples. That idea, worth more than $2 trillion over a decade, would have tilted the tax code to be much more progressive. It didn’t make it into the Biden agenda, though it has some similarities to the child tax credit that was in place for 2021.

Did God Save Donald Trump? Thoughts from Rolling Stone magazine

These MAGA Leaders Claim God Spared Trump’s Life Did divine intervention save Donald Trump from certain death in Pennsylvania? Marco Rubio and Charlie Kirk are apparently believers Rolling Stone magazine BY TIM DICKINSON JULY 15, 2024 Was Donald Trump’s survival an act of God? In the wake of the shocking assassination attempt on the former president in Pennsylvania Saturday evening, many prominent Republicans — and even a shortlister for Trump’s vice president — are crediting divine intervention for saving Trump’s life. Florida Senator Marco Rubio, widely regarded as a potential 2024 veep choice, posted on X for example: “God protected President Trump.” Trump — despite his sinful history as a thrice married felon who paid off a porn star and has been held civilly responsible for sexual abuse — is seen, paradoxically, among many in the MAGA base as a flawed actor that the Christian God is using to divine ends in American politics. House Speaker Mike Johnson, himself a zealot who has compared his role in government to Moses, declared on X that “God protected Trump.” Johnson claimed the intervention was “just” like how God had once “miraculously protected” George Washington from a gunfire during an ambush in Pennsylvania in 1755. Dan Patrick, the Lt. Gov. of Texas, had gotten the God-saved-Trump ball rolling just an hour or so after the shooting near Butler, Pennsylvania. Patrick is a far-right lawmaker and key player in billionaire Tim Dunn’s Christian nationalist takeover in Lone Star politics. In a post on X, Patrick shared a text he said he sent to Trump: “By the slightest turn of your head in a mere microsecond, or the shield of a teleprompter, your life was spared by the Grace of a Merciful and Holy God,” Patrick wrote. He returned to a thought he said he’d shared with Trump on a recent plane flight: “God has had his hand on you since you first ran for President,” Patrick texted. “No man could survive all you have been through without the Grace of God.” For his part, Dr. Ben Carson, a former Trump cabinet member, posted that the Trump assassination attempt was just the latest in a series of trials that God will set right: “They tried to bankrupt him. They tried to slander him. They tried to imprison him. Now they have tried to kill him, but if God is protecting him, they will never succeed.” That post was shared widely, including by Christian nationalist Charlie Kirk of Turning Point USA, who insisted that Carson was “100% right.” In another post, Kirk suggested a “gust of wind” may have “pushed that bullet ever so slightly.” Kirk added that “the Holy Spirit in scripture is often associated with a gust of wind.” And he insisted, “God’s hand is on Donald Trump.” The Christian nationalist evangelist Lance Wallnau helped popularize the notion that Trump is a modern-day Cyrus, an old testament pagan king whom God used for divine purposes. Appearing on the far-right religious broadcast Flashpoint, Wallnau said that a nicking of Trump’s ear, instead of a deadly wound, proved that God is “ruling in the details.” By Sunday, Trump himself was getting behind the idea that Providence had protected his life. Posting on Truth Social, Trump expressed his gratitude for the nation’s “thoughts and prayers,” because, he wrote, it was “God alone who prevented the unthinkable from happening.” The poor marksmanship of a 20-year-old shooter, who reportedly was barred from his high school rifle club and may have been rushed by a local cop trying to stop his rampage, is a more likely explanation for why the shots on Trump lacked accuracy. The notion of divine intervention itself raises uncomfortable questions — including why a just deity would allow a local former fire department leader to perish in the same attack, while shielding his wife and daughter. Or why such a God, for example, didn’t spare the school children of Uvalde from a similar deadly shooter with an AR-15. But such qualms did not appear to trouble MAGA stalwarts, whose blind faith in the righteousness of far-right American politics continues to rival, if not trump, any genuine faith in Jesus.

Did Racism create Capitalism?

Back in 2022 I invited Ibram X. Kendi, author of "How to be an Antiracist' to join me at Valencia to debate his contention that captialism was born out of racism. He did not make it, but here is a speech you might find useful to answer this imporant question.

The Economics of Trump's NATO remarks

In case you missed it, recently former President Donald Trump stated that if he were in office once again he would "encourage" Russia to invade members of NATO who are, by his estimation, not paying enough for their security. The chart below shows the percentage of GDP each NATO member pays toward NATO defense. While there has been a stated expectation that each nation pays 2% of its GDP towards the protection of this organization, most nations fall a bit short. To Trump, this means they are not paying their bills and thus, should be left unprotected should a future invasion take place.

I would like to offer Donald Trump two thoughts. First, if, for example, Russia took you up on this and invaded Germany while you were President, the other NATO members would be obliged to come to Germany's defense. Think for a moment what this would mean for the global economy. Surely, exports from the U.S. to NATO nations would collapse during this quasi-World War. This means less money for the U.S. and a shrinking U.S. economy. Moreover, this invasion would lead to far fewer goods coming from NATO to the U.S., triggering a drop in our aggregate supply and higher inflation. Meanwhile, this global recession would cause tax revenues to plumment, social welfare spending to rise and by the time the dust settled the U.S. would lose far more money from leaving NATO to fend for itself than we are currently losing by subsidizing the nations that fall short of the 2% goal. In short, Trump's remarks reflect horrible economic policy. The second thought is this. Consider why NATO was formed to begin with. Allowing rogue states like Russia and an increasingly militarized China to view the United States as a potential bystander is an invitation to World War III. Plus, his bluster most likely has many NATO members thinking (rationally so), "O.K., fine. See who comes to help the United States if you get into a war in the future." One can only hope that there are a few adults in the Trump room who can convince him of the idiocy of making his recent comments the official stance of the United States.

Biden's Memory vs. Trump's Narcissism

It has been, for any of you that check this blog from time to time, nearly 2 years since I have given enough of a damn to write anything. You have not missed my Op-Ed pieces for the Orlando Sentinel, or any other paper for that matter, because I no longer choose to waste my time on the rapidly eroding quality of print journalism in this country (the Wall Street Journal being one exception...). That said, I wanted to chime in on the state of politics in America in the winter of 2024 as we slog towards what might be the most embarrassing elections in our nation's history. It goes without saying, but I will say it anyway, that we have, from the left, President Joe Biden who seems to care so little about our country that he is willing to run for re-election despite overwhelming visual and audio evidence that he is incapable of filling this office until he is 86 - or for that matter, 82 - years of age. It is somewhat shocking and at minimum, disturbing to watch Mr. Biden struggle to communicate about anything. I am 57 and sometimes (often) struggle to remember what the best lines are to finish a thought, or a lecture. Therefore, I do have sympathy for a man who has a horrible job that requires mental alertness on a scale few can fathom. It is for that reason that my sympathy turns to anger and bewilderment that he is willing to risk huge errors in judgment and a possible Constitutional crisis all to, in his words, "finish the job I started." How the Democrats save us from his nomination, I do not know. Then there is the potentially far more terrifying prospect of the re-election of Donald Trump. In 1991 I changed my voter registration from Republican to Libertarian because I realized that George H.W. Bush had taken Ronald Reagan's party and flushed it down the quasi-liberal toilet. His son gave us more "Compassionate Conservatism" at the expense of the budget and good economic policy and then gave us a War on Terror that gutted our founding principles. No to be outdone, Donald Trump has succeeded in ENDING all signs of what the Republican party used to be. From his disastrous and idiotic trade war with China to profligate spending, cruel and irrational immigration policies and complete refutation of the fact that America needs allies, Donald Trump and his Constitution-ignoring minions are now poised for what will be the 2025-2029 "Revenge Tour". Make no mistake about it, a second Trump term will be dominated by a 78-82 year old narcissist who will be hell-bent on destroying everyone - and every institution - that dared to tell him that he was not re-elected in 2020 or that he was unfit to be president ever again. This revenge tour will also most likely be conducted in an environment where China will once again be targeted, and Russia will be emboldened. I would not be shocked if his outsized view of his own greatness and mission will lead to armed conflict on a scale we have not seen in decades. For the past two years when people have asked me my view on where we are as a nation I have said, "Jimmy Crack Corn". For older readers you will know that in the song bearing that phrase, the next line is...."and I don't care." I really wish I still cared as much about our country as I used to. I still love the idea of what our nation was supposed to become. Ben Franklin was asked by a citizen, "So, Mr. Franklin, what kind of country did you create for us?", shortly after the signing of the Declaration of Independence. His answer? "A Republic, if we can keep it." I think Mr. Franklin - and other Founders - knew that the moment the ink dried on that parchment paper, the clock was ticking on this republic. The ticking has sped up because the American people have become so ignorant, polarized, spoiled and arrogant that we have selected "leaders" who are an embarrassment to the men and women who valued our liberty back in the day.