Chase Oliver interviewed in New York Times

The New York Times recently interviewed Libertarian presidential candidate Chase Oliver. 

Libertarian Candidates Can Change Presidential Outcomes. What Does the New Nominee Believe? New York Times | Jane Coaston: 

June 17, 2024 - "In 2016 the Libertarian Party presidential candidate, Gary Johnson, received more votes than any of the party’s other candidates in history and the most of any third-party candidate since Ross Perot.... In 2022 the hard-line Mises Caucus took control of the Libertarian Party... But in a major surprise, the winner of the party’s [2024] presidential nominating process was not the Mises Caucus’s favorite but Chase Oliver, a 38-year-old gay antiwar activist who had left the Democratic Party. I spoke with Mr. Oliver about what libertarianism means to him today, [and] how he plans to fight for independent votes this year.... This interview has been edited for length and clarity...."

"Chase Oliver: Libertarianism to me has always meant the freedom for peaceful people to make their own decisions about their own lives without government interference. I’ve always said that 'if you’re living your life and not using force, fraud, coercion, theft or violence, your life’s your life, your body’s your body, your business is your business, and your property is your property; it’s not mine, and it’s not the government’s'.... [A]s somebody who has actually embraced truly classical liberal values, I’ve understood that there will be people who live more conservatively than I do. That’s fine, so long as they don’t seek to use the force of government upon me. Just as I’m happy to let anybody live their life as outside of the norm and outside of the box as they want to, so long as they don’t seek to use the force of government on me.... 

Chase Oliver. Claire Merchlinsky, NY Times.

"I think the pandemic certainly solidified many of the libertarians’ view that there isn’t a crisis that government won’t take advantage of to rob us of our liberty. This was certainly proven out during the Covid years. Whenever we see a crisis happening, the first thing we need to look to is, 'How is the state going to exploit this for their benefit, their power and their gain?' — many times at the expense of the average working person. We saw this with millions of small businesses disappearing. We saw this with the callous lockdowns that prevented people from even saying goodbye to their loved ones as they were passing away.... 

"I’m from Atlanta, where we have the Stop Cop City movement. So I believe the criminal justice and police accountability movement is still very much alive and well where I’m at. And I still see many people wanting to have a level playing field for individual citizens against government when it comes to all areas of criminal justice ... because overpolicing hasn’t ended. The abuses that we see from law enforcement that need to be held accountable have not stopped....

"Let’s expand past cannabis to the total end of the war on drugs, which creates much of the violence we see in our neighborhoods. But really, the next hill to climb is going to be therapies like psilocybin therapy, MDMA therapy, ketamine. These are therapies that have been shown in a medical setting to absolutely help people suffering from mental health issues, including PTSD for our veterans....

"I’m one for a less interventionist foreign policy, one that exports our values with free markets and free trade as opposed to bombs and bullets. But Donald Trump isn’t for that, either, because he’s a hard-core economic protectionist who doesn’t know what free trade is or how it’s beneficial to the marketplace.... The only true free-market and peace candidate is the Libertarian Party candidate. That’s me in this race, and I look forward to earning the votes of the antiwar movement....

"I think we need to understand that there’s a broad swath of the electorate that is, broadly speaking, quite libertarian. We just have to be able to communicate our values in a way that they can resonate with, that understands them.... We want to help the poor. We just don’t think the state’s the best to do that. We want to see more alternatives in the marketplace and more choice of innovation in the marketplace. And we certainly know the state’s not going to achieve that.... 

"What I’m stressing in my campaign and I think we need to stress more as a party is that we actually value the liberty of other people because that is what gives us our individual liberty. If we’re not fighting for the liberty of people who look differently or who live differently or who worship differently or who love differently, then we are not fighting for our liberty, because when one person is not free, we are not free. So I’m hoping that people can see the empathy and, frankly, the love that comes out of the message of liberty from my campaign. Because if we’re not fighting for other people, we’re not fighting for ourselves."

Read more: https://www.nytimes.com/2024/06/17/opinion/chase-oliver-trump-biden.html

A fat chance of dying with Covid

Lockdowns Worsen the Health Crisis | American Institute of Economic Research - Kiley Holliday & Jenin Younes: 

March 27, 2021 - "A recent global study found that obesity is a 'driving factor in COVID-19 deaths,' and that Covid-19 death rates are an astonishing ten times higher in countries where most adults are overweight.  Although advanced age is the strongest indicator of a severe outcome from a coronavirus infection, 'being overweight comes a close second,' the report determined.  The CEO of the World Obesity Federation went so far as to blame the 'failure to address the root causes of obesity over many decades ... for hundreds of thousands of preventable deaths.'  While the study makes evident the degree to which poor underlying health is a driving force in coronavirus deaths, we have known almost since the beginning that being overweight or obese significantly increases the risk of a severe outcome.

"Given this information, the Anthony Faucis and Eric Feigl-Dings of the world should focus on alerting people to the dangers of being overweight and obese, and expending significant efforts to encourage exercise and healthy diet.  Instead, they have spent the past twelve months urging people to 'stay home, save lives' and to wear two masks, if not three or four, a measure not shown to have mitigated coronavirus deaths at all.

"In a similar vein, governors around the country have ordered gyms closed, along with countless other businesses.  In New York, gyms have been open since this past summer, but patrons must wear a mask at all times ... despite the fact that the World Health Organization (WHO) advised against wearing a mask while exercising, pointing to research demonstrating that wearing them even during mild to moderate physical activity can 'lead to significant negative cardiovascular and pulmonary effects in both healthy people and those with underlying respiratory diseases'.... Likewise, especially at the beginning of the crisis, governors around the nation closed playgrounds, national parks, and hiking trails, another policy choice that simply deprived people of the opportunity to engage in healthy outdoor activities.... 

"The exhortations of the 'stay home' crowd, as well as the implementation of measures such as gym and park closures have had the expected impact, which is that 42 percent of adults in the United States reported undesired weight gain during the past year, with an average of twenty-nine pounds.  Millennials as a group fared the absolute worst, with 48 percent reporting unwanted weight gain, at an average of forty-one pounds.  Suffice it to say, a significant portion of adults who in March of 2020 were not at substantial risk of a severe outcome from coronavirus now can be categorized as in an elevated risk group.

"The cause of this national belt-loosening is not merely staying home and moving around less, but anxiety and depression caused by social isolation, both of which have been demonstrated to cause weight gain and obesity.  Society has now organized itself around the principle of depriving people of meaningful social contact with family, friends, and coworkers for the better part of a year.  One need not have a degree in psychology to recognize that such an approach is bound to aggravate the obesity crisis, as indeed it has. In fact, our newly confirmed Surgeon General, Dr. Vivek H. Murthy has written an entire book on health effects of loneliness, arguing that it is associated with increased risk of heart disease, dementia, obesity, and sleep disorders.

"Yet despite these circumstances, publications such as the New York Times have been running grossly irresponsible pieces with headlines such as Should You Worry About Your Kid’s Pandemic Weight Gain?  (the answer of the author, Virginia Sole-Smith is, generally speaking, ‘no’).... Sole-Smith ascribes the rising incidence of childhood obesity to the pandemic itself, rather than the decision to shutter classrooms for many months. She contends that because childhood dieting can lead to adult eating disorders, parents should avoid treating their children’s weight gain as a 'problem to be solved'.... 

"A more recent Times article, by Sandra E. Garcia, dodged the issue of underlying health, and instead argued that people whose body mass index (BMI) qualified them for early vaccination should take advantage of that status.... Apparently, Garcia’s ideological commitment to the narrative of identity politics precludes any admission that being overweight, and particularly obese, is a significant predictor of a severe outcome from a coronavirus infection, and that many people can take steps to lose weight and thereby become healthier and even remove themselves from at-risk categories.  Getting vaccinated will not solve the larger problem, as it can only protect one from the coronavirus and does not cure the various comorbidities resulting from poor diet and a sedentary lifestyle....  

"We suspect that one day, the quarantining of entire societies that was carried out in response to the coronavirus pandemic, leading to vast swaths of the population becoming unhealthier overall and ironically more susceptible to severe outcomes from the virus, will be seen as the 21st century version of bloodletting.  As the epidemiologist Martin Kulldorff has observed, public health is not just about one disease, but all health outcomes.  Apparently, in 2020, the authorities forgot this obvious truth."

Read more: https://www.aier.org/article/lockdowns-worsen-the-health-crisis/

Government shutdown as "libertarian experiment"

The Libertarian Experiment That Isn’t | Cato @ Liberty - Ryan Bourne:

January 11, 2018 - "According to Paul Krugman, the government shutdown amounts to a potentially big libertarian experiment. With nine departments and multiple agencies closed, maybe for months, the New York Times columnist and Nobel laureate envisages a coming test of whether the country can live without the Food and Drug Administration, the Small Business Administration and farm subsidies....

"As the vast majority of the U.S. population go about their daily lives, barely noticing that 25 percent of federal discretionary spending has been paused, it’s certainly possible many will wonder why debt is being racked up for programs that have no noticeable effect on their well-being. Who knows, many employees, businesses and farms may also reconsider the wisdom of placing their livelihoods at the whims of the political process.

"Better still, the shutdown may bring attention to these otherwise rarely-scrutinized programs. If major columnists continue identifying Cato as proponents of scrapping things such as farm subsidies and small business cronyism, linking to our research on the damaging economic, political, and social consequences of existing provisions, the shutdown could serve a useful public education role too!

"But ... shutdowns appear not to change much in regards the size and scope of government in the long term, yet bring chaos, ill-feeling and uncertainty in the short....

"Libertarians are indeed confident that, as in countries such as New Zealand, scrapping agricultural subsidies would deliver a more efficient industry, taxpayer savings, and a bigger economy. But ... temporary suspension of promised support is not an environment conducive to farmers making long-term crop or farm ownership decisions, private companies banding to form market-based food safety certification agencies, or small businesses sourcing new finance.

"Yes, economic actors will take steps to mitigate the effects of disruption. But knowing government will eventually reopen, there is little to no incentive for the new institutions to develop or businesses and farms to undertake the structural change we would see if government absented from these roles. Instead, ... [t]he natural priority for those farms, businesses and federal employees right now is to lobby successfully for the government to reopen and their payments to start flowing again....

"In fact, ... a host of other areas likely to be noticeably affected by a sustained shutdown – security screening at airports, air traffic control, and the management of national parks – are better managed in other countries with more private sector involvement. If the shutdown brings attention to this, then great.

"Overall though, libertarians are fully aware that for the real policy experiments we desire, the public and/or politicians must be convinced of the necessity or desirability for permanent policy change in a market-based direction. The best chance for success with that is in an environment where those affected can adjust in an orderly manner, and replacement private-sector institutions have time to develop."

Read more: https://www.cato.org/blog/libertarian-experiment-isnt
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Civil forfeiture unconstitutional, federal judge rules

Judge Rules Albuquerque Civil Forfeiture Law Unconstitutional, Upholds Innocent Until Proven Guilty - Forbes - Nick Sibilla, Institute for Justice:

August 1, 2018 - "In a landmark decision, a federal court ruled that Albuquerque’s civil forfeiture program 'violates procedural due process' because it forced hundreds of property owners to prove their own innocence.... Judge James Browning also found that the city’s 'forfeiture officials have an unconstitutional institutional incentive to prosecute forfeiture cases'.…

"Back in 2014, the Institute for Justice and The New York Times exposed a vehicle forfeiture conference where New Mexico law enforcement officials made a series of startling statements, including calling civil forfeiture a 'gold mine' that offered 'little goodies.' Spurred in part by those Kinsley gaffes, lawmakers unanimously approved legislation to abolish civil forfeiture throughout the state. When the law took effect in July 2015, New Mexico became the second state (following North Carolina) to only allow criminal forfeiture, which requires a criminal conviction to forfeit property. Yet Albuquerque refused to comply with the new state law, and continued to seize cars under its municipal forfeiture ordinance....

"Arlene [Harjo] had to fight to save her car from civil forfeiture, almost a year after New Mexico had abolished the practice.... Unlike criminal cases, where defendants are presumed innocent and the government must bear the burden of proof, under Albuquerque’s civil forfeiture ordinance, Arlene had to prove her innocence....

"Arlene joined with the Institute for Justice and sued the city in August 2016 to win back her car. Just a few months after she filed her lawsuit, Albuquerque returned her car [but] her challenge continued, culminating in her legal victory on Saturday....

"Judge Browning declared that the city’s forfeiture program was unconstitutional for two main reasons. First ... Albuquerque’s forfeiture program 'violates due process by depriving car owners of their property unless they prove their innocence,' which creates an 'unconstitutional risk of an erroneous deprivation.' He cited the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Nelson v. Colorado, which invalidated a Colorado law that required criminal defendants whose convictions had been overturned to prove their innocence in order to recover court costs and fees.....

"Second ... the city has 'an unconstitutional institutional incentive to prosecute forfeiture cases because, in practice, the forfeiture program sets its own budget and can spend, without meaningful oversight, all of the excess funds it raises from previous years'....

"As the U.S. Supreme Court ruled almost 40 years ago in Marshall v. Jerrico, 'A scheme injecting a personal interest, financial or otherwise, into the enforcement process may ... in some contexts, raise serious constitutional questions'....  Directly quoting from the Marshall decision, Browning concluded that there is a ‘realistic possibility’ that forfeiture officials’ judgment ‘will be distorted by the prospect of institutional gain'."

Read more: http://gdspoliticalanimal.blogspot.com/2018/08/civil-forfeiture-unconstitutional-nm.html
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Appeals court OKs Block's suit against NY Times

NY Times must face defamation lawsuit over professor's slavery comments -  Jonathan Stempel, Reuters:

August 15, 2017 - "A federal appeals court ... said the New York Times Co. must face a defamation lawsuit by a Louisiana economics professor who said it quoted him out of context by saying he described slavery as 'not so bad.'

"The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals revived claims by Walter Block, who teaches at Loyola University, over a January 26, 2014, front page article about libertarianism and a potential presidential candidacy of Senator Rand Paul, a Kentucky Republican who later ran for the White House.

The article, 'Rand Paul’s Mixed Inheritance,' also quoted Block as saying the retailer Woolworth’s had a right to exclude blacks from its lunch counters because 'no one is compelled to associate with people against their will'....

"Block, a self-described libertarian, said that while he used the words attributed to him, the reporters Sam Tanenhaus and Jim Rutenberg distorted their meaning by omitting necessary context. Block said this made him appear racist, despite his having always been a 'bitter opponent' of slavery.

"A lower court judge dismissed the case, but the three-judge appeals court panel found a 'genuine issue of material fact' as to whether the article was false and had a defamatory meaning.

"'If, as Block has pleaded, he stated during the interview that slavery was "not so bad" except for its involuntariness, a reasonable jury could determine that the NYT’s decontextualized quotation falsely portrayed him as communicating that chattel slavery itself was not problematic - exactly the opposite of the point that he says he was making,' the panel said.

"The court also found it premature to dismiss Block’s claim that the Times acted with actual malice....

"The judges on the appeals court panel were appointed by Republican presidents.

"Tanenhaus and Rutenberg are also defendants in the case, which the appeals court returned to U.S. District Judge Ivan Lemelle in New Orleans."

Read more: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-tillerson-asia-afghanistan/tillerson-pays-flying-visit-to-afghanistan-to-discuss-u-s-strategy-idUSKBN1CS1PM
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This year's evil libertarian: James M. Buchanan

Book Review: 'Democracy In Chains,' By Nancy MacLean : NPR - Genevieve Valentine:

June 18, 2017 - "[E]conomist James Buchanan — an early herald of libertarianism — began to cultivate a group of like-minded thinkers with the goal of changing government.... This sixty-year campaign to make libertarianism mainstream and eventually take the government itself is at the heart of Democracy in Chains....

"Buchanan headed a group of radical thinkers (he told his allies 'conspiratorial secrecy is at all times essential'), who worked to centralize power in states like Virginia.... As MacLean lays out in their own words, these men developed a strategy of misinformation and lying about outcomes until they had enough power that the public couldn't retaliate against policies libertarians knew were destructive."

Read more: http://www.npr.org/2017/06/18/531929217/democracy-in-chains-traces-the-rise-of-american-libertarianism


James M. Buchanan, Economic Scholar, Dies at 93 - New York Times - Robert D. McFadden:

January 9, 2013 -  "James M. Buchanan, a scholar and author whose analyses of economic and political decision-making won the 1986 Nobel in economic sciences ... was a leading proponent of public choice theory, which assumes that politicians and government officials, like everyone else, are motivated by self-interest — getting re-elected or gaining more power — and do not necessarily act in the public interest.

"He argued that their actions could be analyzed, and even predicted, by applying the tools of economics to political science in ways that yield insights into the tendencies of governments to grow, increase spending, borrow money, run large deficits and let regulations proliferate....

"Buchanan contended that the pursuit of self-interest by modern politicians often led to harmful public results. Courting voters at election time, for example, legislators will approve tax cuts and spending increases for projects and entitlements favored by the electorate. This combination can lead to ever-rising deficits, public debt burdens and increasingly large governments to conduct the public’s business.

"In lectures, articles and more than 30 books, Dr. Buchanan amplified on the theory of public choice and argued for smaller government, lower deficits and fewer regulations — a spectrum of policy objectives that were ascendant in the 1980s conservative agenda of President Ronald Reagan.

"Over the years since Dr. Buchanan won the Nobel, much of what he predicted has played out. Government is bigger than ever. Tax revenue has fallen far short of public programs’ needs. Public and private borrowing has become a way of life. Politicians still act in their own interests while espousing the public good, and national deficits have soared into the trillions."

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/10/business/economy/james-m-buchanan-economic-scholar-dies-at-93.html
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NY Times misrepresents school choice outcomes

The New York Times Continues to Mislead About School Choice in Michigan | Cato @ Liberty - Jason Bedrick:

January 10, 2017 - "In its quest to build a false narrative about Betsy DeVos, nominee for Secretary of the U.S. Department of Education, the New York Times has continuously misled readers about the effects of charter schools in Detroit. The latest example comes from today’s editorial: '[DeVos] has also argued for shutting down Detroit public schools, with the system turned over to charters or taxpayer money given out as vouchers for private schools. In that city, charter schools often perform no better than traditional schools, and sometimes worse.'

"The NYT editors based their claim on a (faulty) Times op-ed from November in which Douglas Harris made the following claim: 'As one of the architects of Detroit’s charter school system, [DeVos] is partly responsible for what even charter advocates acknowledge is the biggest school reform disaster in the country. […] One well-regarded study found that Detroit’s charter schools performed at about the same dismal level as its traditional public schools'....

"Back in July, I highlighted the same report’s findings to dispel a similarly misleading description in the NYT: 'As shown [on] page 44 of the CREDO report, nearly half of Detroit’s charter schools outperformed the city’s traditional district schools in reading [46%] and math [48%] scores, while only one percent of charter schools performed worse in reading and only seven percent performed worse in math.'

"To claim, as the NYT does, that Detroit 'charter schools often perform no better than traditional schools, and sometimes worse' based on these figures is a highly distorted way of presenting the data. It’s equally true to say 'Detroit charter schools almost always perform as well [as] or better than traditional schools'....

"As [Ranesh] Ponnuru notes, the 2012 CREDO study concluded:

Based on the findings presented here, the typical student in Michigan charter schools gains more learning in a year than his [traditional public school (TPS)] counterparts, amounting to about two months of additional gains in reading and math. These positive patterns are even more pronounced in Detroit, where historically student academic performance has been poor. These outcomes are consistent with the result that charter schools have significantly better results than TPS for minority students who are in poverty.....

"Harris responded by shifting the goalposts by expressing skepticism of the very CREDO study he had previously described as 'well-regarded' when citing it in support of his view, claiming that the positive 'CREDO results may reflect cherry-picking” among other reasons why we shouldn’t take these results 'literally.' For the record, I am not entirely persuaded that the matching efforts in the CREDO study were well done, but one cannot cite a study in support of one’s view only to dismiss it when it is pointed out that the study’s conclusion contradicts that view."

Read more: https://www.cato.org/blog/new-york-times-continues-mislead-about-school-choice-michigan
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Revisiting the 'Libertarian Moment' at Cato

The 'Libertarian Moment,' Revisited – InsideSources - Graham Vyse:

March 18, 2016 - "Nearly two years since the New York Times asked, “Has the ‘Libertarian Moment’ Finally Arrived?,” the answer appears to be a resounding 'no.'

"First, libertarian-leaning Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul failed to take off in the Republican presidential race.... Now presumptive GOP nominee Donald Trump is frequently called an authoritarian, embracing an activist, indeed muscular, role for the federal government on issues ranging from publicly funded healthcare to rounding up and deporting undocumented immigrants.

"And yet for libertarianism’s biggest devotees, accepting defeat isn’t an option.

"Earlier this month, former New Mexico Gov. Gary Johnson was pitching his Libertarian presidential campaign through the halls of the Conservative Political Action Conference, when InsideSources asked whether talk of a 'moment' for his movement was overblown. He was quick to say that Paul never called himself a pure libertarian, so the senator doesn’t prove any conclusive case against the cause.

"'They’re social conservatives,' Johnson said of Paul and his father, former Texas Rep. Ron Paul, who ran as a Republican in the 2012 White House race. The former governor argued that Americans should try a true believer — someone like him.

"Conor Friedersdorf isn’t so sure. The Atlantic writer got laughs Wednesday at the Cato Institute, libertarians’ flagship think tank in Washington, when he joked during a panel discussion about Johnson’s charisma — or lack thereof.... At the same time, Friedersdorf ... stands by 'a belief that libertarianism is just fine, that it’s won some big victories in the very recent past, and I expect it to win more.'

"'Conservatives and progressives are widely judged with the understanding that most political change happens gradually and on the margins,' he said, 'but especially in the press, antagonists and champions alike often act as if libertarian success would mean a radical shift toward an ideologically pure, uncompromising, small government utopia — or distopia, depending on who you ask.

"'In reality,' Friedersdorf continued, 'libertarian ideas will only ever be implemented incompletely, gradually, in the system of checks and balances that we have, and the question [is] whether future voters will support policies that enhance liberty compared to the status quo. If that’s what we mean by a libertarian moment, I think we’re coming off several. We can expect many more.'

"Another panelist, Reason Magazine editor Matt Welch, also argued libertarians should keep their chins up. Compared to 2008, prior to President Barack Obama’s election, he said the liberty movement is strong. 'We didn’t have Rand Paul in the Senate back then,' he said. 'We didn’t have Republicans who said, "Let’s actually cut military spending’ year over year. … California tried to legalize recreational pot in 2010 and got smacked down, right? … Now we have legal weed as a thing that happens.'

"Enactment of gay marriage and nationwide criminal justice reforms were also cited as libertarian victories, but not everyone in the Cato discussion was as upbeat. Ramesh Ponnuru, an editor at the conservative National Review, said flatly that there never was a libertarian moment, and 'libertarians shouldn’t kid themselves about the appeal of their philosophy.'

"Ponnuru added that some trends in American culture appear to be headed in an overtly anti-libertarian direction, including the public’s answer to the question, 'Do you think that people should be allowed to say things that are offensive?' 'With that question, it seems to me, the trend lines are going in the wrong direction, particularly among young people,' he said.

Read more: http://www.insidesources.com/libertarian-moment/
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Rubio camp dodges absenteeism issue by shooting messenger

How a libertarian TV host became the focus of a Bush-Rubio fight - Washington Post - David Weigel:

January 14, 2016 - "Atlanta-based TV commentator Ben Swann is used to seeing his work recycled. Early in his career, in New Mexico, he racked up awards for spot news reporting. After President Obama took office, he launched a video series called 'Reality Check,' the sort of behind-the-news feature that assures his audience that they are being rescued from the lies of the day.... The twist: Swann is an extremely skeptical libertarian....

"In 2013, he filmed a short independent documentary about the 'Rethink 9/11' campaign in New York, which had bought a billboard to drum up support for a fresh investigation into the collapse of the 7 World Trade Center building.... Swann admitted that the video could hurt him....  'Probably the people we got the most pushback from were libertarians, who said: Hey, don't talk about this. You'll look like you're crazy,' said Swann. 'Everybody who asks those questions gets smeared. All of a sudden, you're a truther'....

"Wednesday afternoon ... the New York Times's Maggie Haberman spotlighted Swann's cameo in an ad by the pro-Jeb Bush super PAC Right to Rise. Swann's October 'Fact Check' segment on Republican presidential candidate Marco Rubio's voting record in the U.S. Senate was the one RTR used to quickly explain his absences. Matter-of-factly, Haberman noted that Swann had 'examined questions about whether 7 World Trade Center could have collapsed as authorities said it did, and allegations that the gunman in the Sandy Hook Elementary School shootings didn’t act alone.' Swann told The Washington Post that he did not receive a request for comment until the post went up....

"But just the whiff of "9/11 trutherism" pulled Rubio's campaign into the fray. Rubio's rapid response pro, Joe Pounder, cited it as more proof of Bush's desperation.

.@JebBush so desperate to launch false attacks on @marcorubio that they are using a 9-11 and Sandy Hook truther http://nyti.ms/1JLdHN9
5:28 PM - 13 Jan 2016

"Here was an ad hominem attack, defined. No one had disputed Swann's 'Reality Check' segment — and no one was really explaining how he talked about conspiracy theories. Consistently, he has explored them as a reporter, asking why other people are asking questions. He is as likely to debunk the questions as to leave them open....

"After Swann saw his reputation battered on Twitter, he noticed that Pounder, in his old role at the oppo shop America Rising, had promoted his work at least twice.... In 2012 ... it did not matter that Swann was a libertarian-leaning reporter who would check into oddball theories instead of quickly dismissing them. In 2016, with Rubio under attack, this began to matter a great deal."

Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-politics/wp/2016/01/14/how-a-libertarian-tv-host-became-the-focus-of-a-bush-rubio-fight/
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Controversial PATRIOT Act sections expire, for now

A Gap in Surveillance, but Ways Around It - NYTimes.com - Charlie Savage:

May 31, 2015 - "For the first time since the aftermath of the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, Americans are again free to place phone calls ... without having logs of those contacts vacuumed up in bulk by the National Security Agency. And ... government agents ... will have to subpoena phone companies for associated calling records and wait for the response to see if anyone in the United States has been in contact with that number. The N.S.A. can no longer simply query its database for the information.

"This unusual situation may last only a few days, until Congress can reach an accommodation over three counterterrorism laws that expired at 12:01 a.m. Monday....

"One of the expired laws permitted wiretap orders of 'lone wolf' terrorism suspects who are not part of a foreign group, a provision that has apparently never been used. A second permitted 'roving' wiretap orders that follow suspects who change phones, a provision that apparently has been used only rarely.

"The third permitted court orders requiring businesses to turn over records that are relevant to a national security investigation, the provision known as Section 215 of the Patriot Act. In addition to the bulk phone records program, the F.B.I. used Section 215 about 160 times last year to obtain particular business records, like suspects’ Internet activity logs.

"All three of the expired laws contained a so-called grandfather clause that permits their authority to continue indefinitely for any investigation that had begun before June 1.... A senior intelligence official recently told The New York Times that the administration was open to invoking the grandfather clause to get the records if a need arose during any lapse.

"In theory, the Obama administration could also invoke the grandfather clause to ask the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court to reauthorize the bulk phone records program as well. However, the administration has vowed not to do that.... A federal appeals court recently rejected the theory that Section 215 could be used to authorize the bulk calling logs program...

"But the apparent loss of the program for now does not mean the government has no way to analyze calling records linked to a new suspect. The F.B.I. can still issue subpoenas called national-security letters to phone companies to obtain the records....

"The Bush administration started the program in October 2001, and persuaded the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court to start blessing it as legal under Section 215 in 2006. Since it came to light in 2013, via leaks by the former intelligence contractor Edward J. Snowden, two independent panels studied classified files and concluded that it had not been abused, but also that it had provided scant concrete benefits."

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/01/us/a-gap-in-surveillance-but-ways-around-it.html?_r=0
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Walter Block endorses Rand Paul for president

Mr. Libertarian Walter Block Endorses Rand Paul - Fergus Hodgson, The Canal, PanAm Post:

April 19, 2015 - "Whether he wanted it or not, US Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) now has the backing of one of libertarianism’s most strident and prominent academics as he campaigns for the presidency.

"Walter Block, the longtime anarcho-libertarian and Austrian-school economist, released a 1,400-word comment via Facebook this Saturday evening, entitled “The Libertarian Case for Rand Paul.”

"'I stand with Rand,' he wrote, 'and I urge my fellow libertarians, particularly those who have been most dismissive of him, to reconsider their position on this man.'

"Block, a tenured professor at Loyola University New Orleans, believes that his own 'libertarian credentials are about as good, among the living, as anyone else’s on the planet.' Lew Rockwell, founder and chairman of the Mises Institute, has dubbed him Mr. Libertarian, and commitment is not a matter of debate for the author of Defending the Undefendable (1976). Block’s uncompromising and combative style has earned him the sarcastic moniker of 'the moderate'.

"A long-time supporter of Rand’s father, Block also wrote Ron Paul for President in 2012, and he laments that 'The acorn has fallen too far from the tree in this case.' However, when it comes to electoral politics, Block is willing to acknowledge that “The perfect is the enemy of the good ...[and] It cannot be denied that Rand is pretty darned good from a libertarian point of view – compared with the realistic alternatives.'

"This announcement comes even after Rand Paul has distanced himself from Block. A 2014 New York Times article sought to sully the younger Paul with comments from Block taken out of context, and Rand countered that Block was just “some guy who I’ve never met."

"A final challenge to Rand among this potential voting block comes from former New Mexico Governor Gary Johnson, who ran on the Libertarian ticket in 2012.... Block acknowledges that Johnson is slightly more in line with libertarian ideology, but he has little interest in a third-party candidate.

Read more: http://blog.panampost.com/fergus-hodgson/2015/04/19/mr-libertarian-walter-block-endorses-rand-paul-for-president/
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Who will Peter Thiel back for POTUS in 2016?

Which 2016 Republican Is Libertarian Billionaire Peter Thiel Going To Back - BuzzFeed News:

March 28, 2015 - "The question of [Peter] Thiel’s loyalties looms large in the Republicans’ heated 2016 fundraising race. The gay, libertarian tech tycoon has funneled millions of dollars in recent years to a diverse array of causes and campaigns, from marriage equality advocacy groups to insurgent Tea Party candidates. In an era when a single motivated billionaire can prop up a presidential candidate all on his own, Thiel’s endorsement would be a major coup for any campaign. But only two contenders in the emerging GOP field can claim an inside track to the billionaire’s cash: Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul, and Texas Sen. Ted Cruz.

"Thiel’s ties to Paul ... are well established. During the 2012 election, Thiel gave $2.6 million to a super PAC supporting Rand’s father, Ron Paul — an eccentric libertarian protest candidate with a narrow but devoted grassroots following. And since then, he has reportedly been an ally and adviser to the younger Paul, opening doors for the senator in Silicon Valley, connecting him with donors and tech operatives, and meeting privately with him as recently as last summer....

"Last year, when a New York Times story described Paul’s political and fundraising infrastructure as feeble and unimpressive, his advisers fired back by giving the Washington Post an exclusive on its 50-state political network. The Post story described Thiel as a 'looming figure in Paul’s constellation of friends, advisers, and possible bundlers,' and 'one of his top West Coast allies'.

"Less well known, however, is Thiel’s longtime support for Cruz.... In 2009, Thiel contributed $251,000 to support the star litigator’s bid for Texas attorney general. Cruz eventually aborted the campaign, but the billionaire’s donations made up one-fifth of his entire campaign war chest. When he then ran for Senate in 2012, Thiel plowed $1 million into Club for Growth, the conservative pressure group that heavily funded Cruz’s primary bid.

"Asked about Cruz last September, Thiel told The Daily Caller, 'Well I think he’s very smart. I think one of the challenges we have in the Republican Party is … our representatives, our senators, are somewhat lower IQ than the people on the other side. So, I think there is something to be said for getting some really smart people in there'....

"Thiel has not yet announced his support for any presidential candidate, and through a spokesman, he declined to comment.... Advisers to both Paul and Cruz also declined comment, but people in both camps said they are courting the billionaire."

Read more: http://www.buzzfeed.com/mckaycoppins/which-2016-republican-is-libertarian-billionaire-peter-thiel
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Asset forfeiture: libertarian issue mainstreamed

Asset forfeiture, drug legalization, and the mainstreaming of libertarian ideas - The Washington Post - Ilya Somin, The Volokh Conspiracy:

October 27, 2014 - "Sunday’s New York Times article on the dangers of asset forfeiture abuse follows a major multi-part series on the same subject in the Washington Post. Last year, the liberal New Yorker also published a major article on the issue.

"As both the Times and the Post emphasize, the present asset forfeiture system in many states allows law enforcement agencies to seize property even if the owner has not been convicted or even charged with any property. Often, the police then get to keep the proceeds from the seizures for themselves, creating a perverse incentive to seize as much property as possible, regardless of the guilt or innocence of the owners. In many cases, as the Post notes, owners have little or no opportunity to reclaim their property because the procedures are involved are difficult and time-consuming, and often too expensive for poor and lower-middle class property owners to afford.

"As in the case of drug legalization, asset forfeiture reform is a cause long-championed by libertarians, which has recently hit the mainstream. The Institute for Justice, a prominent libertarian public interest law firm, has highlighted the issue for years, ans is currently spearheading both legal and legislative challenges to the system. Similarly, libertarians have for decades advocated abolishing the War on Drugs.... only recently has this idea begun to attract widespread mainstream public and elite support.

"Obviously, the two issues are integrally linked. As the Post series notes, the War on Drugs is one of the leading causes of asset forfeiture abuse. The Post article correctly emphasizes that much of the seized property is taken as a result of law enforcement operations undertaken as part of the War on Drugs. The threat that the War on Drugs poses to the property rights of innocent people is yet another reason for conservatives, among others, to rethink their traditional support for it."

Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/volokh-conspiracy/wp/2014/10/27/asset-forfeiture-drug-legalization-and-the-mainstreaming-of-libertarian-ideas/
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Has the ‘Libertarian Moment’ arrived?

Has the ‘Libertarian Moment’ Finally Arrived? - NYTimes.com - Robert Draper, New York Times Magazine:

August 7, 2014 - "Libertarians, who long have relished their role as acerbic sideline critics of American political theater, now find themselves and their movement thrust into the middle of it. For decades their ideas have had serious backing financially (most prominently by the Koch brothers, one of whom, David H., ran as vice president on the 1980 Libertarian Party ticket), intellectually (by way of policy shops like the Cato Institute and C.E.I. [Competitive Enterprise Institute]) and in the media (through platforms like Reason and, as of last year, 'The Independents'). But today, for perhaps the first time, the libertarian movement appears to have genuine political momentum on its side. 

"An estimated 54 percent of Americans now favor extending marriage rights to gay couples. Decriminalizing marijuana has become a mainstream position, while the drive to reduce sentences for minor drug offenders has led to the wondrous spectacle of Rick Perry — the governor of Texas, where more inmates are executed than in any other state — telling a Washington audience: 'You want to talk about real conservative governance? Shut prisons down. Save that money.' The appetite for foreign intervention is at low ebb, with calls by Republicans to rein in federal profligacy now increasingly extending to the once-sacrosanct military budget. And deep concern over government surveillance looms as one of the few bipartisan sentiments in Washington, which is somewhat unanticipated given that the surveiller in chief, the former constitutional-law professor Barack Obama, had been described in a 2008 Times Op-Ed by the legal commentator Jeffrey Rosen as potentially 'our first president who is a civil libertarian.'

"Meanwhile, the age group most responsible for delivering Obama his two terms may well become a political wild card over time, in large part because of its libertarian leanings. Raised on the ad hoc communalism of the Internet, disenchanted by the Iraq War, reflexively tolerant of other lifestyles, appalled by government intrusion into their private affairs and increasingly convinced that the Obama economy is rigged against them, the millennials can no longer be regarded as faithful Democrats — and a recent poll confirmed that fully half of voters between ages 18 and 29 are unwedded to either party. Obama has profoundly disappointed many of these voters by shying away from marijuana decriminalization, by leading from behind on same-sex marriage, by trumping the Bush administration on illegal-immigrant deportations and by expanding Bush’s N.S.A. surveillance program. As one 30-year-old libertarian senior staff member on the Hill told me: 'I think we expected this sort of thing from Bush. But Obama seemed to be hip and in touch with my generation, and then he goes and reads our emails.'"

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/10/magazine/has-the-libertarian-moment-finally-arrived.html?_r=0
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High time to end marijuana prohibition: NY Times

End Prohibition, Again - NYTimes.com - Sunday New York Times, editorial:

July 27, 2014 - "It took 13 years for the United States to come to its senses and end Prohibition, 13 years in which people kept drinking, otherwise law-abiding citizens became criminals and crime syndicates arose and flourished. It has been more than 40 years since Congress passed the current ban on marijuana, inflicting great harm on society just to prohibit a substance far less dangerous than alcohol.

"The federal government should repeal the ban on marijuana....

"There are no perfect answers to people’s legitimate concerns about marijuana use. But neither are there such answers about tobacco or alcohol, and we believe that on every level — health effects, the impact on society and law-and-order issues — the balance falls squarely on the side of national legalization....

"The social costs of the marijuana laws are vast. There were 658,000 arrests for marijuana possession in 2012, according to F.B.I. figures, compared with 256,000 for cocaine, heroin and their derivatives. Even worse, the result is racist, falling disproportionately on young black men, ruining their lives and creating new generations of career criminals.

"There is honest debate among scientists about the health effects of marijuana, but we believe that the evidence is overwhelming that addiction and dependence are relatively minor problems, especially compared with alcohol and tobacco. Moderate use of marijuana does not appear to pose a risk for otherwise healthy adults. Claims that marijuana is a gateway to more dangerous drugs are as fanciful as the Reefer Madness images of murder, rape and suicide....

"We recognize that this Congress is as unlikely to take action on marijuana as it has been on other big issues. But it is long past time to repeal this version of Prohibition."

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2014/07/27/opinion/sunday/high-time-marijuana-legalization.html
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Liberals and libertarians forging House alliances

Liberals and Libertarians Find Common Ground in House - NYTimes.com - Jonathan Weisman:

July 15, 2014 - "From abortion to electronic privacy to background checks for gun purchases, a strange thing has been happening on the floor of the House as it debates its spending bills for the coming fiscal year: the stirrings of liberalism.

The House on Thursday voted 221 to 200 to approve an amendment by one of its most vocal liberal members, Representative Rosa DeLauro, Democrat of Connecticut, to ban federal contracts for companies that set up sham headquarters in offshore tax havens like Bermuda. Thirty-four Republicans bucked their party to push it to passage....

"On May 30, 49 Republicans crossed the aisle to approve language barring the federal government from raiding medical marijuana dispensaries....

"The day before, 76 Republicans joined Democrats to add $19.5 million to the federal instant background check system for gun purchases. The House Appropriations Committee has approved an amendment to allow Peace Corps volunteers who become pregnant by rape to have a federally funded abortion and another measure limiting the federal government’s access to private email communications....

"On June 19, the House voted 293 to 123 to prohibit the National Security Agency and C.I.A. from placing 'backdoor' surveillance technologies on commercial technology products and to end warrantless collection of Americans’ online activities. That amendment, passed over the White House’s objections with a veto-proof margin, was written by Representative Thomas Massie, Republican of Kentucky and one of the House’s most outspoken libertarians, with the Democratic Representatives Zoe Lofgren, who represents Silicon Valley, and Rush D. Holt of New Jersey, a physicist."

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2014/07/16/us/politics/left-and-libertarians-unite-to-amend-house-spending-bills.html?ref=politics&_r=2
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NY Times front-pages 1980 Libertarian campaign

Quixotic ’80 Campaign Gave Birth to Kochs’ Powerful Network - NYTimes.com - Nicholas Confessiore, Sunday New York Times, A1:

May 17, 2014 - ""He backed the full legalization of abortion and the repeal of laws that criminalized drug use, prostitution and homosexuality. He attacked campaign donation limits and assailed the Republican star Ronald Reagan as a hypocrite who represented 'no change whatsoever' from Jimmy Carter and the Democrats.

"It was 1980, and the candidate was David H. Koch, a 40-year-old bachelor living in a rent-[controlled] apartment in New York City. Mr. Koch, the vice-presidential nominee for the Libertarian Party, and his older brother Charles, one of the party’s leading funders, were mounting a long-shot assault on the fracturing American political establishment.

"The Kochs had invested hundreds of thousands of dollars in the burgeoning libertarian movement.... By the end of 1974, [Charles] Koch had helped found what would become the Cato Institute, today one of the country’s leading libertarian research institutions. He was joined in that effort by Ed Crane, chairman of the three-year-old Libertarian Party. The two men believed that libertarian ideas had to be more accessible to the average person if they were to change the country. Over dinners at Charles Koch’s house in Wichita, Kan., and in correspondence with both brothers and their mother, Mr. Crane worked to persuade the family that a vibrant party organization was critical to advancing that goal.

"The family would become the Libertarian Party’s most important donors....

"The Supreme Court handed the Kochs an important weapon in a 1976 decision in Buckley v. Valeo. The court opened two loopholes in a two-year-old campaign finance law that had placed tight controls on what candidates, parties, and private individuals could spend on campaigns: A candidate could spend an unlimited amount of his or her money running for office, and an individual was free to spend an unlimited amount of money promoting candidates so long as the spending was not coordinated with them.

The next three years witnessed the birth of the Koch political apparatus. Charles Koch sought to recruit like-minded businessmen who would invest in the libertarian cause, an embryonic version of the Koch-supervised donor club that poured $400 million into the 2012 campaign."

“'Charles was giving as much to the Libertarians as he was paying out in dividends,' William [Koch] told The Times in a 1986 interview. 'Pretty soon we would get the reputation that the company and the Kochs were crazy'... William Koch tried to seize control of the company in a boardroom coup. He accused Charles of mismanaging the firm and set in motion a bitter legal battle....

"Within a few years, a new faction won control of the Libertarian Party, and Charles and David Koch gradually withdrew."

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/18/us/politics/quixotic-80-campaign-gave-birth-to-kochs-powerful-network.html?src=me
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Rand Paul courting wealthy libertarians for possible 2016 run

Rand Paul and Wealthy Libertarians Connect as He Weighs Running - NYTimes.com - Nicholas Confessore:

April 24, 2014 - "As he has risen in prominence as a Republican presidential contender, Mr. Paul is avidly courting a small but influential cluster of wealthy libertarians.... A tight-knit tribe of philanthropists and entrepreneurs, they have exerted enormous intellectual influence on conservative policy. But they have historically spent more on nonprofit groups and endowing college economics departments than they have on backing candidates."

"Now Mr. Paul is seeking to nudge them into the comparatively messier world of presidential campaigning.

"He has recruited libertarian-leaning financiers and money managers from across the country, including Kenneth M. Garschina, founder of a $5.4 billion New York hedge fund and a contributor to The Review of Austrian Economics, and Donald G. Smith, an investor and board member of the Cato Institute, a libertarian research organization based in Washington. Mr. Paul’s nascent finance team includes Joe Lonsdale, a Silicon Valley venture capitalist who helped start an organization [the Seasteading Institute] dedicated to building new sovereign cities on floating ocean platforms.

"In January, Mr. Paul was the star attraction at a fund-raiser for the Goldwater Institute, a libertarian foundation and legal watchdog based in Phoenix.... In February, at the Club for Growth meeting, held at the Breakers resort in Florida, Mr. Paul pitched a roomful of small-government true believers on the importance of reducing prison sentences for drug offenses."

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/25/us/politics/paul-and-wealthy-libertarians-connect-as-he-weighs-running.html?hpw&rref=politics
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New York Times race-baits Rand Paul

NYT Smears Rand Paul with Claims of Racism, Religious Fanaticism - Joe Wolverton II, New American:

February 1, 2014 - "In a recent article entitled 'Rand Paul's Mixed Inheritance,' the New York Times, the oldest of the establishment’s mouthpieces, slammed Paul ... and took shots at The John Birch Society, the Tea Party, the Ludwig von Mises Institute, and Lew Rockwell for good measure. (The article was posted online January 25, and a version of the article appeared the following day on page A1 of the Sunday print edition.)

"Accusing Paul of being 'steeped in a narrow, rightward strain' of libertarianism, the New York Times begins the race-baiting in the seventh paragraph.

"Paul and those like him, the article claims, 'have formulated provocative theories on race, class and American history, and routinely voice beliefs that go far beyond the antiwar, anti-big-government, pro-civil-liberties message' of the larger libertarian movement.

"Then, speaking of the Mises Institute, the Times makes sure readers realize that not only are libertarians such as Paul possessed of questionable racial biases, but they’re religious nuts, too."

Read more: http://www.thenewamerican.com/usnews/politics/item/17535-nyt-smears-rand-paul-with-claims-of-racism-religious-fanaticism
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Justin Amash relishes libertarian rebel label, writer says in New York Times opinion piece

Justin Amash relishes libertarian rebel label, writer says in New York Times opinion piece | MLive.com - Zane McMillin:

February 11, 2013 - "GRAND RAPIDS, MI — Oft-outspoken Rep. Justin Amash is portrayed as relishing the libertarian rebel label that has amassed him a significant following in a New York Times opinion piece that ran over the weekend.

"Amash takes a starring role in the piece, titled "After Ron Paul, Then What?" and written by Reason magazine senior editor Brian Doherty, published Saturday on NYTimes.com.

"The column by and large examines how retired Rep. Ron Paul, of Texas, oversaw a firing up of the Republican Party's libertarian voters, and how his son, Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky, and Amash are among those carrying the torch forward.

"Amash is an ardent Paul supporter who frequently appeared at rallies for the latter and who shares many of the longtime congressman's beliefs."

Read more: http://www.mlive.com/news/grand-rapids/index.ssf/2013/02/justin_amash_relishes_libertar.html
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