Trump cracking down on legal immigration, too

Trump's Assault on Legal High-Skilled Immigration - Reason.com - Stuart Anderson:

October 30, 2017 - "Almost since day one, restrictionists in President Donald Trump's inner circle targeted not just undocumented low-skilled workers but also legal high-skilled ones.... The White House's 'Buy American and Hire American' executive order, drafted largely by restrictionist Trump aide Stephen Miller within months of Trump assuming office, ordered the Department of Homeland Security and other federal agencies to 'rigorously enforce and administer the laws governing entry into the United States of workers from abroad' with an eye toward creating 'higher wages and employment rates for workers in the United States.' And the agencies aren't wasting any time....  Here are just a few of the things they've done:

• The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) just last week instructed its adjudicators to no longer 'defer to prior determinations,' approvals and findings of facts for the renewal of H-1Bs and other high-skilled visas. This means that when high-tech foreigners try to extend their H-1B after three years, the government having previously approved their applications — involving the same set of facts — means nothing. For employers, it will create uncertainty and additional paperwork burden.
• USCIS is also issuing 'exponentially more' of what are called 'requests for evidence' when an employer first petitions for an H-1B visa, according to BNA Bloomberg. This means that employers must submit additional evidence regarding salaries and job duties.... 
• USCIS adjudicators are also far more suspicious of H-1B petitions where employers offer the lower end of the prevailing wage spectrum, for example when hiring fresh graduates with less job experience.... 
• The Trump administration is delaying whether to defend a regulation that allows certain spouses of H-1B visa holders to work. Tens of thousands of qualified spouses are currently locked out of the job market because their visas bar them from working.

"But what's sending fear and trembling in the high-tech community is an expected rule change that will eliminate the STEM OPT (Optional Practical Training) program that the Bush administration first implemented.... This program allows about 45,000 new foreign STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) students annually to work in the country after graduation not just one year, as is the case with non-STEM students, but three. This adds an important 'practical' aspect to their education and gives them much-needed time to land jobs and stay in America via an H-1B....

"In the absence of STEM OPT, American companies that want to hang on to these students will hire them and place them outside the United States. 'Without an H-1B program supported by the current STEM OPT option, Cummins and other employers will be forced to move our employees and their jobs outside the U.S.,' said Lorrie Meyer, executive director for global talent management at Indiana-based manufacturer Cummins Inc.... That is the opposite, of course, of the goal of 'America First.'"

Read more: http://reason.com/archives/2017/10/30/trumps-assault-on-legal-high-skilled-imm?utm_medium=email
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Cliff Hyra condemns opponents' name-calling

Calling himself the 'grown-up in the room,' Libertarian Cliff Hyra bashes Gillespie and Northam over harsh attack ads | Virginia Politics | richmond.com - Graham Moomaw, Richmond Times-Dispatch:

November 2, 2017 - "Libertarian Cliff Hyra wants Virginians to ignore the attack ads in the governor’s race featuring MS-13 gang members, pedophiles and neo-Nazis.... On Thursday, less than a week before Tuesday’s election, Hyra held a news conference at the state Capitol to emphasize his dismay over the 'wild-eyed accusations and divisive rhetoric' flying between Republican Ed Gillespie and Democrat Ralph Northam and their supporters.

"'I fear for the future of our commonwealth and of our nation [when] even the most staid candidates feel that they have to descend to this level of discourse ...' said Hyra, a 35-year-old Mechanicsville patent attorney who will appear on the ballot ... as the only third-party candidate for governor.... '“It’s unbelievable to me that I had to be the grown-up in the room, because these 60-year-old men, these establishment politicians, a sitting lieutenant governor and a (former) chairman of the Republican National Committee apparently think that the best strategy (for) getting elected to the highest position of the state is name-calling'.....

"Gillespie has invested heavily in ads attacking Northam as soft on the Latino street gang MS-13 because Northam voted against a ban on sanctuary cities earlier this year, even though no sanctuary cities exist in Virginia. Gillespie has also used the case of a convicted sex offender to bash Northam for supporting Gov. Terry McAuliffe’s expansive approach to restoring felons’ voting rights.

"Northam and the rest of the Democratic ticket put out a mailer linking Gillespie and President Donald Trump to the Tiki torch-carrying white supremacists who have rallied in Charlottesville, despite Gillespie’s repeated denunciations of the group. An outside group, the Latino Victory Fund, put out a video ad showing a pickup truck with a Confederate flag and Gillespie bumper sticker chasing down minority children....

"All of it, Hyra said, has distracted from real policy discussions that could better serve voters. He ticked off several of his own policy positions, which include legalizing marijuana and other criminal justice reforms, scrapping SOL testing, protecting property owners from eminent domain 'abuse,' opposing proposed pipelines, and cutting taxes and regulation.

"Hyra was not invited to participate in any of the three gubernatorial debates, and his poll numbers have reflected the limited ability of third-party candidates to break through.... He said he’d like to hit 10 percentage points, which would make it easier for Libertarians to get on the ballot in future elections."

Read more: http://www.richmond.com/news/virginia/government-politics/calling-himself-the-grown-up-in-the-room-libertarian-cliff/article_a40aae45-648b-56ae-99e2-943c37e6be31.html
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The original libertarian New Country project

The Libertarian Dream Was Tried Here | History News Network - Harry Blutstein:

October 15, 2017 - "A Nevada-based real estate developer and coin dealer, Michael Oliver, had a dream.  A libertarian, he wanted to escape the overbearing clutches of governments. The only way to do so, he decided, was to create his own country, where there would be few or no rules.  In 1968, he published A New Constitution for a New Country, a practical guide on how to construct a new nation in which 'people will be free to do as they damn well please.  Nothing will be illegal so long it does not infringe on the rights of others.  If a citizen wishes to open a tavern, set up gambling or make pornographic films, the government will not interfere.'  Income would be generated from fees from ... banks wishing to establish offshore services ... and ...transnational corporations ... to establish their headquarters without bothersome rules or taxation.  It would even issue its own currency.

"Pulling together around 2,000 investors, Oliver established the Ocean Life Research Foundation.  With funds raised, Oliver’s first idea was to find a country that would be willing to sell his foundation one of its islands.... When he couldn’t find any takers, Oliver looked around for an unclaimed island....

"The best Oliver could do was Minerva Reef, in the middle of the Pacific, 500 km (260 miles) southeast of Tonga.  It had never been claimed, despite being discovered as far back as 1854.  There were, however, serious problems ... not the least being that the reef lies ... about four feet under water at high tide.

"Undaunted, in January 1971, Oliver and a small party went to Fiji, where they chartered a 54-foot motor sailer and purchased the materials to create artificial islands on the reef.  On their arrival at Minerva, the party unloaded large hunks of coral wrapped in chicken wire, concrete blocks, sand and other rubble, which allowed them to build two micro-islands on the reef.  On one of these islands, they built a small stone tower and hoisted its flag: a yellow torch of freedom on a solid blue background.  The founding fathers of Minerva hoped to expand the reclaimed land until it would eventually support a city of 30,000 citizens....

"Unfortunately for Oliver, Australia ... pressured Tonga, being the closest country to Minerva, to act.

"Taking up the challenge was King Tāufa’āhau Tupou IV.... On June 21, 1972, he led an expeditionary force to invade the Principality of Minerva. Without an army or navy to call on, the king recruited a five-man convict work detail to undertake the invasion and ... a four-piece brass band played the Tongan national anthem from on-board the royal yacht Olovaba to inspire the troops. Taking courage, when he saw that Minerva was unoccupied, the king decided to personally lead his force. Once the tide was out, the king went ashore. After tearing down [the] Minervan flag, he read aloud a proclamation of sovereignty. The reef now belonged to ... Tonga.

"When the king was safely back on board the royal yacht, his ragtag troops were left to dismantle the stone tower....  What up until now had been a bloodless war turned nasty, as a fight broke out between two of the convicts, and one was killed. So, while the Principality of Minerva never had a live population, it was left with a single gravesite, which was all that remained of the shortest and smallest war in the history of the world, and even that grave soon disappeared, as did the Principality of Minerva when successive storms washed away its artificial islands."

Read more: http://historynewsnetwork.org/article/166946
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Seasteading community may be reality by 2020

Seasteaders to bring a libertarian floating community to the South Pacific - Archpaper.com - Audrey Wachs, The Architect's Newspaper:

October 27, 2017 - "Right now, engineers, scientists, and officials from one country in the South Pacific are hashing out ... an ambitious experiment in aquatic living that’s shaped by libertarian dreams, a pragmatic response to climate change, and a novel architectural experiment.

"'Seasteaders want voluntary societies based on choice, not force,' said Joe Quirk, Seasteading Institute communications director and author, in a YouTube video on the subject. The San Francisco-based organization is on the front lines of the seasteading movement, a Libertarian-influenced crusade that borrows from the language of the American frontier to frame its freewheeling settlement at sea. Decentralized dwelling, the thinking goes, permits members to join or leave the autonomous association at will by simply detaching their dwellings and floating off,... If this sounds far-fetched, well, the first seasteaders may hit the water in just a few years.

"The community could be afloat soon — like, 2020 soon. The Floating Islands Project, as it is officially known, ... found a partner in French Polynesia, an island country in the South Pacific. This January, French Polynesia signed a memorandum of understanding with the Seasteading Institute in San Francisco to build a floating island prototype. The project, off the coast of Tahiti, has to demonstrate it won’t adversely impact the environment, and show what it will contribute to the island’s economy, and then the nation will establish an offshore economic zone for the seasteaders.

"Although seasteading’s libertarian ideals perhaps make French Polynesia — well, any nation — an unlikely partner, ... the country’s thousands of islands are flat and narrow, a topographic combination that is particularly susceptible to climate change. Floating islands could be a vital survival strategy if (but really, when) the seas rise. In turn, the area’s shallow water and ocean conditions that don’t include high waves make the current technology — which has been pioneered on flat water — more adaptable to ocean conditions.

"By the end of this year, the Institute, which was founded in 2008 by libertarian activist Patri Friedman, is working with French Polynesian officials to pass a seazone act. If the rules pass, the group will head to Tahiti to develop a pilot program....

"Dutch firm DeltaSync has built a prototype on a lake in Rotterdam. The Floating Pavilion Research suggests that buildings up to 164 feet (15 stories) tall can be built on the seas and are able to withstand storms and choppy waters. Four years ago, DeltaSync debuted a preliminary plan which estimated that a series of platforms for 20 to 30 people would cost around $15 million. With one-fifth of the space reserved for open greenery, the firm estimates living space would cost about $500 per square foot, which is just over half as much as the average price per square foot in New York City....

"It’s no surprise that the project has — or had — high-profile fans in Silicon Valley. Gawker shutter-downer and Trump supporter Peter Thiel funneled a cool 1.7 million dollars into the initiative, but has since dismissed the concept as 'not quite feasible.' Quirk and others at the Institute have a new company, Blue Frontiers, whose mission is to develop and build the floating seabeds."

Read more: https://archpaper.com/2017/10/seasteading-institute-floating-libertarian-ocean-cities/#gallery-0-slide-0
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Protect Freedom PAC backs 'allies of Rand Paul'

New Libertarian PAC plans to promote Eric Brakey's U.S. Senate bid | Lewiston Sun Journal - Steve Collins: 

November 2, 2017 - "A new political action committee devoted to supporting 'pro-freedom and pro-liberty candidates across the country' vowed Thursday to lend a hand to Republican Eric Brakey’s U.S. Senate campaign in Maine.

"The Protect Freedom PAC said it has more than $1 million already in its coffers and plans to focus initially on helping a gubernatorial candidate in Idaho and Brakey, a state senator from Auburn who hopes next year to unseat U.S. Sen. Angus King, a first-term independent.

"The new political action committee aims to help 'current and future allies' of U.S. Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky, a lawmaker whose father, Ron Paul, helped spread libertarian thinking. Brakey has worked for the presidential campaigns of both father and son in the past.

"The lead consultant for Project Freedom PAC is Michael Biundo of New Hampshire, who served as national senior adviser to Rand Paul’s unsuccessful bid for president last year. Biundo also worked for President Donald Trump’s campaign.

"In a prepared statement, Biundo said the new organization 'believes that we need more public servants who will be strong voices for liberty. With the help of our like-minded donors, Protect Freedom PAC will utilize specific tactics, technologies, and strategies to ensure we get more pro-freedom conservatives elected to public office.'

"He said that Brakey and Idaho gubernatorial hopeful Raul Labrador 'are two perfect examples of the liberty-minded conservatives we need fighting for the values we hold dear.'"

Read more: http://www.sunjournal.com/new-libertarian-pac-plans-to-promote-eric-brakeys-u-s-senate-bid/
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Canadian judge bans federal election deposits

Globe editorial: A judge bans federal election deposits, and it makes sense - The Globe and Mail:

October 31, 2017 - "If you want to run in a federal election, you have to meet certain requirements before Elections Canada will accept your nomination. They include gathering 100 signatures from voters in the riding you want to run in, a witness who will swear that those signatures were honestly provided, and – until last week – a $1,000 deposit.

A judge in Alberta ruled in October that the first two requirements are fine but the deposit is unconstitutional, because it raises an unreasonable hurdle for poorer Canadians who want to run for federal office.

"The question now is, will Ottawa appeal? It shouldn't.

"The case was brought by an Edmonton man who was barred from running as an independent in the 2015 general election.... Kieran Szuchewycz subsequently challenged the three rules.... The judge found the first two – gathering 100 signatures and getting a witness to swear to their legitimacy – are reasonable limits on Canadians' Charter right to run for office.

"But the $1,000 deposit was another matter. The need for a deposit was brought in more than 100 years ago to prevent 'frivolous' candidates from running in federal elections. But, as Justice Avril Inglis noted, the rules don't define what constitutes a 'frivolous' candidate. As well, 'the deposit requirement cannot be said to be rationally connected to that objective' – in other words, any Donald Trump with $1,000 can run, while an intelligent, serious candidate who is short of funds can't.

"The fact that the deposit is refundable if a candidate files paperwork after an election makes no difference, the judge said. In reality, all it does is serve as a filter 'for those that cannot part with $1,000 for the duration of the election.'

"Independent candidates are part of a healthy democracy. They bring ideas and viewpoints to constituency races that are outside the boilerplate discourse of the major registered political parties."

Read more: https://beta.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/editorials/globe-editorial-a-judge-bans-federal-election-deposits-and-it-makes-sense/article36788882/
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The Economist: Atlas is about to shrug in Britain

In Britain, Atlas is about to shrug - Bagehot - Adrian Woolridge, The Economist:

August 24, 2017 - "In Atlas Shrugged, published 60 years ago this October, Ayn Rand asked what would happen if society’s most talented businesspeople got so fed up with being taxed, regulated and otherwise messed about by government that they went on strike. Innovation would cease. The economy would stagnate. And government, starved of easy pickings, would become more bullying.

"The world’s fifth-largest economy is in the early stages of its own experiment with driving Atlas crazy. Since the Thatcher revolution of the 1980's Britain has been one of the most open and business-friendly large economies.... But the settlement is under assault from two directions. The Conservative Party is negotiating Britain’s departure from the European Union, disrupting long-established flows of trade, talent and capital. Meanwhile, the main opposition party is led by a hard-leftist who wants to consign Thatcherism to the dustbin of history.

"Brexit is already beginning to damage Britain’s most globalised industry, finance. Most big investment banks have shifted some people and operations to the continent as a hedge.... Oliver Wyman, a consultancy, predicts that up to 75,000 finance jobs, or 7% of the total, will leave if Britain loses easy access to the single market. EY, another consultancy, puts the figure at 83,000....

"Jeremy Bernard Corbyn ... stands on the verge of power.... There is little chance that Mr Corbyn would moderate his hard-leftism in government. He has been banging the same drums for 30 years, and is surrounded by fellow-travellers such as John McDonnell, his shadow chancellor, and Seumas Milne, his chief strategist, whose biggest disagreement is over whether Stalin or Trotsky is the greater inspiration. He is supported by snarling activists in the Momentum campaigning group and the Unite trade union.... He believes that change comes through conflict rather than consensus, so will expect the markets and media to tell him he is ruining the country: that’s what the reactionary establishment does.

"The combined result of Brexit and Corbyn could be the dystopia that Rand warned about: a stagnant society driven by resentment of the successful. The flight of talent will not only have a knock-on effect on the wider economy.... It will also reduce the state’s revenues, since the top 1% of earners pay almost 30% of income tax and the top 10% pay nearly 60%. Mr Corbyn seems to think that all he need do is to ask 'the rich' to pay 'a little bit more' and everything will be fine. But why would successful people put up with higher taxes, particularly if they follow on the heels of Brexit-related uncertainty and disruption? As Luke Johnson, a serial entrepreneur, points out, the world is full of places where Britain’s Atlases would be welcome, from neighbouring countries like France, which is courting London’s bankers and tech workers, to emerging markets such as Dubai and Singapore. When Atlas shrugs, the whole of Albion suffers."

Read more: https://www.economist.com/news/britain/21727080-combination-brexit-and-jeremy-corbyn-could-lead-dystopia-ayn-rand-predicted
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