Mary Margaret Olohan on November 11, 2020

• Many media pundits and Democrats have said they are making lists of President Donald Trump’s “sycophants” or supporters following the 2020 presidential election.
• “Any R now promoting rejection of an election or calling to not to follow the will of voters or making baseless allegations of fraud should never serve in office, join a corporate board, find a faculty position or be accepted into ‘polite’ society,’” warned Washington Post writer Jennifer Rubin. “We have a list.”
• Journalist Glen Greenwald predicted before the election that rather than settle the nation’s divisiveness, a Biden presidency would spur the media to target Trump supporters, warning: “They’re going to continue to say, not maybe Trump, at least his movement, still pose this existential threat.”

Several media figures and Democrats have called for lists to be made of President Donald Trump’s “sycophants” or supporters following the presidential election, suggesting that these lists will be used in the future to hold the president’s supporters accountable.

“Is anyone archiving these Trump sycophants for when they try to downplay or deny their complicity in the future,” Democratic New York Rep. Alexandria Cortez asked Friday, the day before media outlets called the presidential race for Biden. “I foresee decent probability of many deleted Tweets, writings, photos in the future.”

Ocasio-Cortez is not the only one asking for evidence of Trump supporter’s “complicity.” CNN’s Jake Tapper suggested that Trump and his followers should be careful of behaving in a way that might impact their future employment.

“I truly sympathize with those dealing with losing — it’s not easy — but at a certain point one has to think not only about what’s best for the nation (peaceful transfer of power) but how any future employers might see your character defined during adversity,” Tapper said.

Washington Post columnist Jennifer Rubin also warned that Republicans “now promoting rejection of an election or calling to not to follow the will of voters or making baseless allegations of fraud should never serve in office, join a corporate board, find a faculty position or be accepted into ‘polite’ society.”

Greenwald’s predictions may have been fulfilled in part. Days after Election Day, former Obama spokesman Hari Sevugan highlighted the start of a “Trump Accountability Project” intended to “make sure anyone who took a paycheck to help Trump undermine America is held responsible for what they did.”

Sevugan, who also served as national press secretary for the Democratic National Committee and as deputy campaign manager for former presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg, tweeted Friday that White House staff had begun looking for jobs, adding, “Employers considering them should know there are consequences for hiring anyone who helped Trump attack American values. Find out how at the Trump Accountability Project.”

“We must never forget those who furthered the Trump agenda,” the Trump Accountability Project website says. “We should welcome in our fellow Americans with whom we differ politically. But those who took a paycheck from the Trump Administration should not profit from their efforts to tear our democracy apart.”

The progressive Lincoln Project has repeatedly used it’s Twitter platform to target those affiliated with President Trump. On Tuesday, after multiple inquiries from the Daily Caller News Foundation, a Twitter spokesman told the DCNF that the Lincoln Project’s Twitter account would be locked until it deleted a tweet doxxing two Trump lawyers.

“Here are two attorneys attempting to help Trump overturn the will of the Pennsylvanian people,” the Lincoln Project tweeted with a picture of attorneys Carolyn McGee and Ronald Hicks. The tweet, which included the attorneys’ phone numbers and emails, added, “Make them famous,” with a skull and crossbones emoji.

Conservative figures on social media reacted strongly to the suggestion of making lists.

“While you’re a terrible person for doing this, Democrats putting Trump supporters and Republicans on lists is a great issue for us to campaign on in Georgia, so thanks,” NRSC Senior Advisor Matt Whitlock told Sevugan Friday in a tweet regarding the Trump Accountability Project. “Keep up the great work.”

“The list making at @CNN has begun,” warned radio host Chris Stigall in a Tuesday tweet above a screenshot of CNN. The photograph shows a long list of “GOP Senators Who Haven’t Congratulated Biden” above the caption, “Trump’s Defiance Fueled By Enablers Like Barr, McConnell, Fox.”

“To some insiders, the attacks have emboldened their campaign to find examples of ballot and voting fraud,” wrote the Washington Examiner’s Paul Bedard. “Still, it is true that for many inside the administration, finding a job will be difficult, no matter what. There are about 4,000 administration-related jobs, and those will go to Biden. While there are a few new Republican congressional members, it isn’t enough to absorb all those positions.”

The post ‘We Have A List’: Pundits And Democrats Plan To Hold Trump Supporters Accountable appeared first on The Libertarian Republic.

“If you don’t make stuff, there’s no stuff.”

Obvious? You’d think so. But, as Musk pointed out, our economic policies throughout the COVID-19 pandemic have ignored that simple truth.

The prevailing assumption is that the government can press “pause” on the economy throughout the pandemic, throwing millions out of work, and then simply tide everyone over with relief checks.

“This notion,” said Musk, “that you can just sort of send checks out to everybody and things will be fine is not true.”

“They’ve become detached from reality,” he added. “You can’t just legislate money and solve these things.”

Musk’s point is indisputable. Government checks are only valuable to the extent that there is enough actual “stuff” (goods and services) available for those dollars to buy. The more you lock down production, the more our stock of “stuff” will shrink, and the more our living standards will worsen. No amount of zeros added to those government checks can change that.

When “stuff” dwindles, printing government checks cannot magically reverse that impoverishment. It can only do two things:

1. Shift who gets impoverished by redistributing wealth (that is, access to the remaining “stuff”), and
2. Delay the drop in living standards by enabling higher consumer spending.

Higher consumer spending means burning through our remaining “stuff” faster instead of investing it in production. This means even less “stuff” down the road.

It’s like if you lost your job and cheered yourself by splurging on an expensive new TV. Government checks merely make us feel less poor by inducing us to further impoverish ourselves in reality. It postpones the pain today by condemning us to much greater pain tomorrow.

America has a lot of “stuff” to shift around and burn through, so we can delay the pain of impoverishment for quite a while. The same cannot be said for poor countries, however. People there have so little “stuff” that they feel the pain of production lockdowns immediately.

“If you don’t make the food,” Musk warned months ago, “if you don’t process the food, you don’t transport the food… there’s no stuff.”

And now, for hundreds of millions of people around the world, the stark truth of that statement is manifesting as empty stomachs and ruined lives.

According to a new report from World Vision, a global humanitarian organization, as many as 110 million children in Asia alone are facing hunger, and 85 million households across Asia have little or no food stocks as a result of the economic impact of COVID-19 and the lockdowns.

The report also found that as many as eight million children in Asia are being exposed to begging, child labor, and child marriage since parents are unable to buy food in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic.

“Our rapid assessments in countries across Latin America, Sub-Saharan Africa, and Asia show that it’s clear we are on the cusp of a catastrophe for children,” said Norbert Hsu, World Vision’s partnership leader for global impact. “Without urgent action we risk an increase in extreme poverty and hunger not seen for decades.”

World Vision’s numbers are no outlier. Similar figures were recently reported by the World Bank.

Hsu doesn’t explain precisely what “urgent action” should be taken. It wouldn’t be surprising if it involved massive amounts of foreign aid, the usual remedy prescribed by such organizations.

But international “relief” is not a real solution for them, any more than domestic “relief” is for us. As Musk said, “You can’t just legislate money and solve these things.”

To meet these massive problems without making them worse, we need to come to grips with economic reality: especially the concept of scarcity, and how it pertains to production and money.

Only then will we fully understand just what we are setting ourselves up for by locking down the economy indefinitely to combat the pandemic. Only then will we be able to make truly informed judgments about the trade-offs involved.

The crisis facing the global poor is a heart-rending tragedy. It is also an ominous warning, the proverbial canary in a coal mine.

If we keep burning through our “stuff” faster than we’re replacing it, we will eventually descend into an economic crisis that dwarfs what we have been through so far, and our fraying social fabric may not be able to handle it.

Like gravity, scarcity can be denied, but it cannot be defied.

“If you don’t make stuff, there’s no stuff.”

Dan Sanchez

Dan Sanchez is the Director of Content at the Foundation for Economic Education (FEE) and the editor of FEE.org.

Jon Miltimore

Jonathan Miltimore is the Managing Editor of FEE.org. His writing/reporting has been the subject of articles in TIME magazine, The Wall Street Journal, CNN, Forbes, Fox News, and the Star Tribune.

Bylines: The Washington Times, MSN.com, The Washington Examiner, The Daily Caller, The Federalist, the Epoch Times.

This article was originally published on FEE.org. Read the original article.

Image: screenshot composite from PowerfulJRE

The post Elon Musk’s Economic Truth Bomb to Joe Rogan appeared first on The Libertarian Republic.

“Average Americans had lots of money in the bank. They weren’t loaded up with debt. The didn’t have credit card debt. They didn’t have student loans. They didn’t have car loans. They were solvent. Even after the Great Depression, they were solvent. We lived in a bubble economy. Everybody was paycheck to paycheck. Nobody had anything. Businesses couldn’t survive if their revenues stopped. Workers couldn’t pay their rent if they didn’t get their salary. That’s not right. That’s part of the bubble.” – Peter Schiff

Enjoy the whole three hour discussion here.

Follow Joe Rogan and Peter Schiff.

The post Peter Schiff Explains the Student Loan Crisis to Joe Rogan appeared first on The Libertarian Republic.

Peter Hasson 

Former Vice President Joe Biden said Saturday that “there is no room for compromise” on transgender issues, which he called the “civil rights issue of our time.”

Biden has previously said that passing the Equality Act, a Democratic-supported bill that would require schools to include biological males who identify as transgender on girls’ sports teams, would be his top legislative priority.

“Let’s be clear: Transgender equality is the civil rights issue of our time. There is no room for compromise when it comes to basic human rights,” the Democratic presidential candidate wrote in a tweet Saturday.

Although Biden didn’t mention Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders in his tweet, the statement came as Sanders, also a 2020 Democrat, has faced outrage from left-wingers for touting an endorsement from popular podcast host Joe Rogan.

Rogan, also a comedian and UFC color commentator, has been outspoken against forcing female athletes to compete against biological males.

Biologically male athletes who identify as transgender have racked up accomplishments in female athletics.

Two biologically male runners in Connecticut have dominated girls’ high school track in the liberal state, which allows athletes to compete as the gender with which they identify.

Franklin Pierce University runner CeCe Telfer, a biological male who identifies as a transgender woman, won an NCAA DII national championship in women’s track and field in May 2019. Telfer previously competed on the university’s men’s team.

A biologically male runner at the University of Montana was named the Big Sky Conference’s cross-country female athlete of the week in October 2019.

Also in October, biologically male cyclist Rachel McKinnon won a women’s world championship and set a world record at the 2019 Masters Track Cycling World Championships in Manchester, England.

This article is republished with permission from the Daily Caller News Foundation.

Image: JRE YouTube

The post Joe Biden Says ‘No Room For Compromise’ On Transgender Issues As Bernie Faces Backlash For Joe Rogan Endorsement appeared first on The Libertarian Republic.

They discuss how Snowden‘s life, space aliens, the Fourth Amendment and more! Enjoy it on your favorite podcast app or via the YouTube video below.

Follow Joe Rogan on Twitter. 

[RELATED: Benedict Arnold’s Self-Interest Proves Edward Snowden’s Patriotism]

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Piker went on a minute-long angry rant in which he asked if the Congressman had learned his lesson about the difference between the use of military force and diplomacy. He continued by angrily asking, “isn’t that how he lost his eye, because some brave mujahideen, a brave fucking solider, fucked his eyehole with his dick?”

I’m not here to defend Rep. Crenshaw’s foreign policy as it is not America’s place to police the world, nor is it in our best interests to constantly stick our noses in the affairs of foreign nations. Much like Senator Rand Paul (R-KY), I see a direct link between the hawkish behavior of both major parties that has led to the destabilization of the Middle East, giving birth to Islamic terrorist groups such as ISIS.

My foreign policy is very much in line with Thomas Jefferson’s when he warned against getting involved with the many costly wars going on in Europe in his day.

“We wish not to meddle with the internal affairs of any country, nor with the general affairs of Europe. Peace with all nations, and the right which that gives us with respect to all nations, are our object.” -Thomas Jefferson to C. W. F. Dumas, 1793.

Hasan Piker was totally out of line to personally insult Congressman Crenshaw over an injury he received in the line of duty because of his disagreement.

Regardless of political affiliation or ideology, the American people as a whole are facing a deeply rooted inner problem. We have an addiction to outrage. We in the media have contributed heavily to this problem, and I see it as my responsibility to be part of the solution. I encourage Hasan Piker to do the same.

It is perfectly acceptable to disagree with someone, but to insult a man’s personal injury he received as a Navy SEAL, and to suggest that America deserved the 9/11 attacks because of bad foreign policy is disgusting.

I may be “on the other side” due to my political ideology as a libertarian, but Hasan Piker and I are in the same position when it comes to being members of the media in our country. I would argue that, in some ways, we contribute more to the direction of this country because we contribute to shaping the opinions of Americans. As reporters or commentators, it is our responsibility to make sense of what is going on politically in our world and give our opinions on why something is right or wrong.

I appreciate the fact that Cenk Uygur had Hassan on TYT to address his vile comments regarding Crenshaw’s battle wounds. While I agree with Piker that military service should not be treated as a sacred cow which grants a politician immunity, their willingness to serve should be treated with a certain level of respect. It requires tremendous personal sacrifice, which does sometimes include the ultimate sacrifice of giving up one’s life.

The words we use are indeed powerful tools when it comes to what we advocate for, but sometimes how something is said can be just as important as what we say. I highly encourage Hasan to remember the power he holds as a commentator and to realize that language like he used in his Twitch stream is contributing to harsh feelings between our fellow Americans wherever they fall on the political spectrum.

It is good and even necessary to debate matters of public policy vigorously, but we should remember that everyone is human and a certain level of civility should be expected no matter how much you disagree with someone.

We have entered times in which tensions are high between neighbors. If we are to navigate these turbulent waters, it is up to us as individuals to remember the words of Jesus in Matthew 7:12 which say, “So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets.”

image adaptation credit: Gage Skidmore

The post OPINION: Hasan Piker’s Tirade Against Dan Crenshaw appeared first on The Libertarian Republic.

Joe Rogan, Comedian and UFC commentator, has been an important part of the podcast world and media for the past several years with The Joe Rogan Experience. Rogan has a wide array of guests and with his popularity, the calibre of famous guests continually increases.

He’s been compared to everything from the next generation Walter Cronkite to David Letterman. Earlier this year, Justin Peters with Slate said Joe’s podcast has become “an essential platform for “freethinkers” who hate the left.

Rogan has left-wing, right-wing, independent, and apolitical guests on his show.  (You can search guests in his more than 1,300 episodes here.) You know there is a wide range when Bernie Sanders and Jordan Peterson can seamlessly fill the same space.

This is the latest statement from Ashton Stowell, who created the petition four months ago:

The contrived format of the political debates seems an unlikely fit with Rogan’s 2-3 hour average show format, but podcast lovers can dream.

At the end of the day, what does the man himself think about all this? Wednesday, Rogan mentioned the petition and said that it isn’t happening (22 minutes into his recent episode with Jim Gaffigan).

Still want to sign the petition?

Get Joe Rogan to Moderate the 2020 Presidential Debate

Follow Like A Libertarian on Twitter. 

The post Petition for Joe Rogan to Moderate Presidential Debates Nearing 200,000 Signatures appeared first on The Libertarian Republic.

Joe Rogan is a liberal with libertarian leanings – nuanced like most people. For example, he supports both the right to bear arms and universal healthcare.

Some of his past political guests include Libertarian Presidential Candidate Gary Johnson and Democratic Presidential candidate Andrew Yang. Unfortunately for all you meme addicts out there, Bernie did not light up a la Elon Musk last year.

According to a recent Quinnipiac Poll, Sanders is in third place at 14% behind Joe Biden (32%), and Elizabeth Warren (21%). Many think that Sanders is to be credited with moving the Democratic party further to the Left.

They started off with Rogan asking Sanders what he thought of the Democratic Primary debate format and its constraints. Sanders described them as a “reality show” and said that giving candidates forty-five seconds to cover important topics was unrealistic. It appears he feels insulted by the whole set up.

In the past, Rogan has both complimented and poked fun at Sanders so this is probably one of the most unscripted interviews (discussions) you’ll see from Bernie Sanders.

Here are some highlights:

Free healthcare like Canada. Medicare for all. Healthcare is a human right. Business will have an equal burden so it’s “fair”. It will help mitigate housing costs in expensive state like California. Critics are wrong to say he embodies socialist dictators.

How will he pay for “free education”?

In this clip Bernie explains how student debt will be forgiven and all public university colleges and universities will become tuition free by taxing Wall Street speculation.

I believe in the Second Amendment, but…

Like the President and the NRA he supports Red Flag laws, yet wants  ‘Assault Weapons’ banned too.

Now here’s a major topic where independent voters and libertarians probably agree with Sanders. Perhaps this is why, in part, he earned the support of some liberty lovers during his 2016 run. (To be fair, Republicans too are leaning this way was time goes on.)

Marijuana legalization, decriminalization, and criminal justice reform.

What about the space aliens?

Rogan helped make the run on Area 51 famous recently. And  he loves discussing aliens with guests such as martial arts pioneer and conspiracy lover Eddie Bravo.

Bernie says as President he’d announce all the alien secrets on Rogan’s podcast.

Joe played nice, and the show went for a little over an hour (usually they are two-three hours), so we didn’t get any grilling about the minimum wage controversy Sanders recently faced.

You can watch the whole show here.

Follow Like A Libertarian on Twitter.

The post Bernie Sanders Campaigns on the Joe Rogan Experience appeared first on The Libertarian Republic.

Peter Schiff: Competition Beats Socialism

Last week on the Joe Rogan Experience Episode 1002 Peter Schiff and explained to Rogan and his audience how Capitalism through competition equates to innovation and freedom and Government central planning to less innovation and progress. One of the quotable moments from this show was from Schiff, “I’d rather have no taxes and not vote, than to vote on who taxes me.” Schiff discussed his sympathy for the Occupy Wall movement’s misplaced blame, Bitcoin, and the current political climate. Both gentlemen discussed how the free market market gets a bad wrap because of a lack of education the benefits of free market competition.

Peter Schiff:

 “The government can force me to to things that I don’t want to do. The government can make my life worse. A private business is just gonna make my life better. Right? If they’re not gonna make my life better I don’t do business with them.” 

Watch the whole clip here:

Enjoy entire podcast here: Joe Rogan Experience #1002 – Peter Schiff

Follow Like A Libertarian on Twitter. 

The post Peter Schiff: Competition Beats Socialism appeared first on The Libertarian Republic.

As the nation turns its eyes towards my home state of Missouri to analyze President Donald Trump’s upcoming visit, the Republican Party faces an ideological and factional fork in the road. The conservative and libertarian movements have suffered grievous setbacks over the past few years, both ideologically, and one electorally. Mainstream conservative figures took a backseat to populist factions in the GOP, which spurred a modest but historic vote outcome in the much smaller Libertarian Party in 2016 under Governor Gary Johnson. Still, registration for America’s largest third-party has predictably declined post election, a trend which occurs after nearly every presidential election cycle.

President Trump threw a mammoth sized bone to the traditional conservative wing of the GOP in his recent foreign policy address to the nation, where he declared that he would increase the number of troops deployed to Afghanistan to fight terrorism. But that will be very unlikely to be enough to boost his flagging support amongst senate and house Republicans who, despite their love for armed conflict, would much prefer it be done under their watch.

In a newly rare stand, Trump’s base stood arm in arm with libertarian Republicans in near total opposition to the troop increase. Trump’s base being composed mostly of paleoconservatives and populists found common cause again in a brief moment that reminded this liberty activist of the old coalitions of the Old Right, and the Remnant, when paleocons and libertarians worked together to denounce unfettered militarism. Now, paleocons and Alt-Right activists found themselves standing outside the halls of power once again, as their leader Steve Bannon exited the White House, rejoining Breitbart and ostensibly leading the charge against the embrace of neoconservative foreign policy ideals. Sebastian Gorka soon followed, declaring that the MAGA movement inside the White House was over. And while that may be true inside the White House, the Trump movement within the GOP itself is still very strong.

So what’s the way forward for libertarians and conservatives? Do recent developments mean that the traditional paleoconservatives will once again make common cause with libertarians? Is the neoconservative wing again in ascendance? Which factions will make common cause in order to build a coalition of

I’ve made it clear in recent years that I hold figures such as Ben Shapiro and Glenn Beck in high regard. Though they may not pass a libertarian purity test (and let’s be honest, who does?) they are to me the gatekeepers of a larger movement that I have believed for some time should be natural allies of the liberty movement in the United States. Shapiro has somewhat signaled something similar, while also expressing reasonable frustration over the Libertarian Party’s 2016 presidential ticket. But then, what rational person wasn’t upset over that ticket?

But while Shapiro has remained steadfastly Republican, Glenn Beck has effectively declared “a pox on both their houses,” eschewing traditional mainstream party politics and looking elsewhere for solace from the chaos of the current ideological maelstrom at play. When I approached Glenn Beck, as I did thousands of other friends and supporters before my senate run, to ask which party I should choose to run under, Beck responded “none of them, run independent,” with no further advice or instruction.

I was a tad befuddled.

Independent? As if running third-party with at least some semblance of organization for ballot access were worse than running alone. I’m not some Jon Snow-like character of politics, able to take the repeated stabbings from former allies and capable of being risen from the dead. I barely survived being openly stabbed in the back in the last election, and for that cycle I was a legitimate contender for the Libertarian Party’s presidential nod. No, Independent is not a viable option for me to seek the Iron Throne upon which Claire McCaskill currently resides.

But will figures such as Shapiro and Beck be willing to come together for one last try at holding off the White Walkers of the DNC? I’m hesitant to believe that a new coalition can be formed. The liberty movement itself seems unwilling to coalesce around popular candidates even in races where they are only contested by big government Republicans and Democrats. I’ve reached out to Shapiro several times, but have been unable to get a response on whether he’d be interested in discussing such a new coalition. I hope that a public conversation between us can happen soon so that we can discuss such an endeavor. For the country’s sake, for liberty’s sake, it’s past time.

Is there anyone else that you think would be a good figure to spearhead such a movement? Joe Rogan? Dave Smith? Leave your comments below.

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