Well, the PGA Championship is finally here. Not much else to talk about if you’re in Houston. The Astros continue their death mediocracy spiral. The Texans do not look good. And that McGregor-Mayweather fight has been postponed for two weeks (in my mind). Oh well, at least I can read this story over and over to keep me happy for the next couple of weeks.
Across the pond, Liverpool have thankfully rejected a second Barcelona bid for Coutinho. Nothing else is happening of note. And the seasons get closer and closer.
Yankees win. Sox win. Nats win. Twins win. Dodgers win. Rockies win. Hell, everybody won (the Orioles had the day off) that played and matters to the Glibs…except the Astros. This slide needs to end. Somebody get me a live chicken.
That’s it. I can’t dwell on sports. Not with impending nuclear war on my mind. I better jump into…the links!
There are things that probably happen and go unreported. Then there are things that probably never happened but do get reported. If this is real, and I’m skeptical, this person needs to not blame society and needs to blame herself for not reacting. Or blame her parents for raising her like shit. Either way, don’t try to shame me for this bullshit.
The left are absolutely losing their shit over Trump having the nuclear codes. I guess they yearn for the peaceful days of “we came, we saw, ::snicker:: he died” leadership. When we picked on small potatoes guys that had given up their weapons programs and were trying to reenter the international community.
Fox News host Eric Bolling has hit back with a $50 million lawsuit at the HuffPo writer that published the story accusing him of sending pictures of male genitalia to coworkers. The writer has responded by telling him to pound sand. Get your popcorn out.
How’s about I leave baseball scores alone for a day and regroup…much like the Astros need to do before they get into a routine where .500 ball is acceptable. No? Fine. Nats lost, Yankees lost, Red Sox won, Rockies lost, D-backs beat the Dodgers, Orioles lost and the Twins won. That should cover most, if not all, of the globs interest. An ump got suspended for answering a question, an answer that contained little more than a joke about a little banter, and not much else happened. Well, other than ESPN making a rather exclusionary list. I can only imagine the outrage if they changed one particular word in the lede. But its their business. They can continue to torpedo it the way they want. But don’t worry. The piece is so riddled with bloat wear that I doubt anybody tries to navigate it for more than a few minutes anyway.
McGregor-Mayweather in three days! The PGA Championship starts tomorrow! And football inches closer every day. Let’s thank God for our many blessings.
The President is also accused of communicating with the special prosecutor. I wonder if he’s talking about Loretta Lynch committing perjury or conspiring with Bill Clinton to keep the contents of their incredibly unethical meeting private by secreting all the communications she didn’t disclose off to the Obama library? Who knows.
Should all be forgiven once somebody serves their sentence? Its an interesting question. I’m not sure there is an easy answer. I abhor the sex registry and don’t think it should exist, but I’m not sure they should be allowed the privilege of playing football.
When a state stops funding an abortion mill, teen birthrates spike. OK, and? Does that mean I should be forced to subsidize something I find morally and fiscally reprehensible? Obviously fans of PP think so.
A short schedule of games yesterday means you won’t hear much about baseball today. But the Cubs won, as did the Nats, the Twins and the Orioles. So there should be some happy Glibs out there today. The real sports news happens later this week as the PGA Championship kicks off Thursday and the McGregor-Mayweather freak show/money grab reaches its conclusion. So tune in later in the week for more in-depth sports recaps (or don’t, if you don’t like them. I’ve got thick skin.)
I told you that was gonna be short. We’re already into…the links!
I believe this captures the essence of the first link.
In what will become one of the least surprising stories of the 21st Century, Google has fired the person that penned that memo on their hiring practices. Hilariously, they noted their acceptance of all opinion in their public statement about firing someone…for giving their opinion internally. Will this be a seminal moment in the PC wars? We shall soon find out. Banjos thinks it will. I think it won’t even be a blip on the radar. And do you know why I feel that way? Because Bing isn’t that good a search engine and the people that boycott google will come running back in a matter of days, if not hours.
Miami-Dade County stops being a sanctuary city. (Yeah, I know they’re a county.) Will be assured of federal grant money. Meanwhile Chicago, who has the most abusive police department in the country, based on the per capita settlements they’ve paid out in excessive force claims, has sued the DOJ over their policy of not giving grants to sanctuary cities. I guess they don’t want to tell the feds about their black-bag jails where suspects disappear for days at a time with no info given to their families or attorneys.
Will Minnesota finally go red? asks the Weekly Standard. Our contingent of Minnesodans can weigh in and educate the rest of us on the real likelihood of that or if it was just a blip based on Hillary Clinton’s lack of enthusiasm last season or Trump’s willingness to show up and campaign. Methinks its similar to the situations in Georgia and South Carolina where Team Blue outperformed expectations in special elections earlier this year: sure, they got closer, but once Team Red felt a little hot breath on their neck, they gave it their attention and comfortably won.
In case you’re planning on attending the “Unite The Right” rally, which I’m sure nobody here is unless its to laugh at the racist assholes, you better not plan on using Air BNB. Because they’re purging all accounts associated with the group.
What is libertarianism’s best strategy to gain a legitimate amount of power nationally (and then happily cede it to the people)? Libertarians of the small-l and big-L varieties have sought to gain power by either co-opting one of the major political parties (See; Ron Paul Revolution that the GOP squashed) or by finding candidates to run as a Libertarian that appeal to establishment voters (see: Aleppo). But I believe there is a third, and overlooked, option: get a candidate who does some libertarian things that irritate the major parties and the deep state apparatus, and allow those actions to result in political hysterics from ultra-partisans while average Americans see no net loss from the actions and in many cases a serious net gain. I believe this will continue to set in motion a series of events where the government can be shrunk to a level that’s at least tolerable to minarchists and other run-of-the-mill libertarians.
How libertarian is President Donald Trump?
The answer is: not very. I think that’s been established. The man swam in a pool of cronyism sharks his entire professional life. He, through desire or necessity, has been a rent-seeker. He has used eminent domain to further his projects. He has sought special treatment from political entities both domestic and foreign to further his interests. The man is no altruist. But does that make him distasteful, or does it make the system in which he operated distasteful? Personally, I will rarely fault someone for utilizing the same processes his competition would use, so long as it does not originate from a position of government authority. And Trump never held office before his inauguration. In other words, he never utilized political office for financial gain by, say, orchestrating government access to foreign actors that overwhelmingly donated to your personal foundation or for trade groups and banks that hired your unqualified husband to give speeches at ridiculously over-inflated fees. In other words, I don’t hate the player, I hate the game.
And yes, Trump is allowing Jeff Sessions to wage the drug war, which is a sticking point to a lot of libertarian minds. But I ask you, is it better to wage a drug war and uphold the concepts of equal protection and the rule of law (while allowing Congress to do their job and vote to legalize drugs the right way)? Or is it better to arbitrarily enforce duly enacted laws based on the geography of a person and/or their willingness to bend a knee to the state and support legalization with a ton of unlibertarian strings attached?
The sadder these people are, the happier I get.
Some policy positives already achieved and in the works:
So now we come to Donald Trump’s libertarianism or lack thereof. The man, no doubt, will continue some of our military adventurism overseas. But he has already stopped our policy of running guns to terrorists and terrorist-sympathizers in Libya and Syria after the previous admin established those programs and destabilized an entire region, while thoroughly destroying the likelihood that a rogue regime would abandon its weapons programs and try to re-enter the international community (read: we came, we saw, he died). There has been no resurrection of the programs nthe last two administrations ran to ship guns into Mexico through the drug cartels, for different motives yet still in gross violation of Mexican sovereignty. And perhaps he will continue to not carry out targeted assassinations of American citizens that have never been charged with a crime, which the prior admin was all too happy to do in gross violation of the Fourth Amendment. Furthermore, he has already started to roll back our country’s association with liberty-robbing agreements like the Paris Climate Accord and the Trans-Pacific Partnership. Both of those agreements undercut the ability for American companies and consumers to freely negotiate what they were willing to exchange goods and services for. Removing our name from them is a step in the right direction, especially if it’s followed up with free trade agreements that haven’t existed in a century or more. That action is yet to be seen, but at least someone had the audacity to upset the globalist apple cart and stop a little bit of the insanity those agreements put us further along the path to.
Get us out of this circus, please!
As for civil liberties, Trump is still an unknown quantity. His statement about “roughing up” suspects is problematic to say the least. And I can only hope it was hollow bluster. But even so, it sets a very poor example and he should correct it immediately. Now, having said that, he has not furthered Obama’s policy of killing Americans without due process, but that’s not going to be enough. His willingness to stop going after businesses that exercise what should be a fundamental right to free association looks good so far. As do his overtures to Second Amendment causes. As does his willingness to tackle Affirmative Action and Title IX insanity. Holy crap, I just realized he’s been the best president on civil liberties we’ve had in recent memory. People that overlook the substance of these actions due to his boorishness need to reassess what their priorities are, in my opinion.
Furthermore, our business climate has benefited greatly from having an outsider installed as the head of the regulatory apparatus. Trump has already vowed, and started to carry out, a dismantling of the bureaucracies that stifle economic growth and freedom for Americans. From the onerous EPA regulations to CAFE standards being rolled back or passed to the states, there has been a serious uptick in confidence from the business and manufacturing sectors that Trump will get the government out of the way of prosperity. The hilarious irony there is that Trump was a crony his entire life, as I mentioned earlier. But perhaps he had no choice but to play the game the only way that could lead to success: do what the government tells you and push others out. Now, when given the reins, he seems to be more than willing to eliminate programs that he personally benefited from but that create barriers to entry for others. Yes, he could have opposed the system while benefiting from it. But let’s not pretend he’s some awful hypocrite because he played the hand he was dealt. Business “leaders” like Elon Musk, Mark Bezos, Mark Zuckerberg, Bill Gates, etc, etc, etc have done the same thing and so did their forefathers like Ford, Carnegie, Mellon, and others on back through the ages as long as there was a government agent with a hand in their pocket. So I’m willing to forgive that.
Be happy for this.
And lastly, he put what appears to be a strict constructionist on the Supreme Court in Neil Gorsuch. That is a marked improvement on any names mentioned by establishment candidates on either side of the aisle during the last campaign.
The other intangible positive results of a Trump presidency:
Another thing libertarians have always sought is a diminished reverence for elected officials and other “public servants” whose goals are often at odds with those of the people. Trump’s mere presence has caused probably 2/3 of the political spectrum to demand the reverence for the office be scaled back. They are now calling for more power in the hands of the states or localities and even ::gasp:: the people, on occasion. These are people that have been statists to the core. They are the Big Government democrats and NeoCon statist Republicans. And they are finally unified in an effort to diminish the role of the Executive Branch. This serves to re-establish the separation of powers that has become all-too-muddy with much of the congressional responsibilities being passed to Executive Branch agencies in an attempt to deflect responsibility and ensure easy reelection for entrenched politicians. The more responsibility that is pushed back into the laps of our directly elected officials and down to the state or local level, the better for us. It helps us create a more diverse political environment where “laboratories of democracy” are able to compete for ideas and human investment, rather than an all-powerful centralized state controlling everything. And one need look no further than minimum wage laws (since we have them, I’ll address it) to realize a top-down approach where the minimum wage “needed” in New York is imposed on small towns in New Mexico or Wyoming, where the cost of living doesn’t even come close, is a horrific idea. The Trump era is returning us to an ideal the founders embraced in that respect.
And he is returning us to another ideal the founders cherished: temporary service from business-people and non-careerist politicians. The flood of people on Trump’s coattails from all sides of the political spectrum is refreshing. Sure, many are moneyed and or celebrity candidacies. But so what? Its a step in the right direction any time we start to end political dynasties and careerists that sit in the Senate for 30 years as they grow further and further out of touch from average Americans. More turnover from political novices has a much better potential upside of shrinking our government than does further entrenching those who have pushed us to near financial ruin and reduced individual liberty.
Pucker up!
The net result so far (in my opinion):
So let us all embrace the non-libertarian president. For one of these reasons or for another I might have missed. But embrace it nonetheless, because it has already borne libertarian fruit, and I suspect it will continue to do so for many of the right and some of the wrong reasons. Its the best we could have hoped for and probably the most libertarian moment in America for a hundred years.
Man, what a weekend. It was my birthday on Saturday and I managed to install a new dishwasher, take my kids to the park, cook a really good low country boil and have a few beers. Then on Sunday, my brother in law and his wife had their first child (congrats! – hopefully he sees this, as he lurks from time to time). And we ended it all by watching the best episode of GoT in quite some time.
Also, the Astros, Yankees, Dodgers, Red Sox, Nationals, Twinkies and even OMWC’s beloved Orioles won yesterday. That doesn’t leave much room for losers, other than Team Canada. And the Rockies, although they’re safely in the wild card spot. Also, Hideki Matsuyama got some national revenge yesterday by winning the WGC-Bridgestone. So we can finally put the enmity between Japan and the USA on August 6th behind us. Which I’m sure both nations will appreciate.
OK, time to say sayonara to sports and get down to the business of…the links!
Uber has been searching for a female CEO for a while now. All three of their finalists have penises. And people are butthurt. Heaven forbid they’d try to attract the person who will bring the best ROI to their investors and steer the company through the choppy waters of inhospitable municipalities and regulatory capture by the taxi cab cartels. Nosiree! They have to go for a woman or they’re sexist.
And lastly, if ever there were a poster boygirlchild ummm, let’s see, a spokesperson, for not letting children undergo gender reassignment, I think we’ve found him. Or have we found her? Because the answer seems to constantly change. (TL;DR: what a shitshow).
I figured enough of you would bring politics up, so I left it alone today.
Man, I’m done with baseball for a bit. The Astros seem to be sliding into a legitimate funk. Fortunately for me, the Yankees are following them there so I won’t have to hear a bunch of shit-talking about them catching us any time soon. Meanwhile, on the left coast, the Dodgers are absolutely playing out of their skin. Too bad they’ll shit the bed in the playoffs as usual.
The Cowboys practice squad beat the Cardinals practice squad in Canton. The biggest name there, Tony Romo, got in a practice game of his own when he called it with Jim Nantz in a side booth as he prepares for his second career. I wonder when he will inexplicably slip on a banana peel and land on his head, ending his season early. Y’all know its gonna happen too, so don’t call me an asshole.
The Neymar deal is finally done. And soccer kicks off for real in just a couple weeks. Hooray for getting up at 5 am on Saturday and Sunday again! Can’t wait to see Liverpool make a run at the EPL this year IF they can stay healthy.
Now the enviro-nuts have gone too far. I’m sure PETA is stoked and will use this to set up more kill-van operations across the country. The rest of us will not be as pleased.
Speaking of crazy: I present you one John McCain. The former reverse-ace pilot has now blamed the failure in Afghanistan on Donald Trump. I guess he forgot the 15 and a half years of failure that went on before the last 7 months of the Trump presidency. Seriously, he should respect the office and his constituents enough to step aside before the tumor completely absorbs his whole body like the dude’s asshole from the Naked Lunch story.
Top Man touts credentials of being a Top Man. Tells prospective voters that he’s so much smarter than them that he will plan on running more of their lives. Prospective leftist voters squeal with delight.
These are my links. There are many like them but these links are mine. My links are my best friend. They are my life. I must master them as I must master my life. Without me, my links are useless. Without my links, I am useless. I must author my links true. I must post earlier than my enemy, who is trying to scoop me. I must scoop him before he scoops me. I will. Before God I swear this creed: my links and myself are defenders of my blog, we are the masters of the other site, we are the saviors of my mornings. So be it, until there is no other site, but peace. Amen.
The Astros are getting me a little worried. The Dodgers finally lost a game with a lead (after winning 53 straight after taking it, which is un-fucking-believable). Klitchko hangs em up after a 57 year boxing career. Neymar ain’t going to PSG just yet. And the Cowboys and Cardinals head to lovely Canton, Ohio tonight to kick off the NFL preseason. That’s all there is. Oh yeah, except the Red Sox building their lead over the Yankees by not playing while the pinstripes lost.
The Red Sox are back in front in the AL East, The Astros are in a bit of a funk (so its a good thing that they have a huge lead) and the Nationals keep riding that roller coaster (so its a good thing they’re in a dumpster-fire of a division). And the NFL Preseason starts tomorrow. Life is good, sort of. I could still use a dose of college football in my veins. But I’ve got to wait 29 more days until the Buckeyes take the field but fortunately a bit less than that for some games of significance. Hooray, America!
And speaking of football, the J sub D Memorial is about ready to happen again. If you were involved last season, check your email. I sent a notice out yesterday. We’ve got about a week to firm that up and then I’ll be opening it up to the good folks here at our new home. I would imagine there to be some moderate interest as the league enters its seventh season. And if there’s extra interest, we could set up a new Glibs league. I think the comments section would be a good place to start that discussion. So chat away (with apologies to the anti-sports contingent).
And now, without further ado I give you…the links!
Bus seats mistaken for burqas.
An anti-immigrant group got trolled online and the WaPo thinks its hilarious. Left out of the lede: that they’re in Norway. But included in the story: that Norway’s government is right-wing. And that those insane right-wingers are threatening to ban some muslim attire like the burqa from schools. Why would those crazy right-wingers do something so insane? I guess for that answer, you’d need to ask the very left-wing French government, who imposed that very same ban some time ago. I guess WaPo gonna WaPo.
Here’s a story where the words “children and minorities hardest hit” would be an appropriate subheading. But its being done by a benevolent government for their own good, so it will probably fly under the radar. Seriously, who the fuck wants to spend an extra $1.44 for a 12-pack of Coke just to fund the pension plans of overpaid, brutal cops and shitty teachers that care about their union a hell of a lot more than their students?
Such a brave, strong stand! Except it contravenes a lawful order handed down (well, it will be shortly) from the legally-elected Commander In Chief and short-circuits the entire concept of civilian oversight and command of the military. This asshole needs to be removed immediately, as would any officer that doesn’t want to follow perfectly legal and justifiable orders handed down by their commander. We don’t live in a military dictatorship, and this is a bad precedent to let stand.
Man, what the fuck? Couldn’t the libertarian paradise have happened somewhere other than an Alaskan fishing town? Maybe HuffPo should take their mid-America bus tour there (metaphorically speaking unless their bus has Chitty Chitty Bang Bang-like qualities) and see what life is like in a place with no cops and likely a shitload of armed people walking around.
Another good move by the Trump administration. Kudos to the NYT for covering it, although it is sort of slanted in the direction of this being a bad thing. Oh well, it’ll be nice to see colleges judge people based on the content of their character rather than the color of their skin. Hey, that would be a good slogan for a politician that’s against Affirmative Action! Maybe someone could use it someday.
MURDERERS!!!!! (just kidding)
What a bunch of pussies. The correct response is “get off my property, you stupid asshole, or I’ll remove you. But I guess extortion is alive and well if done correctly (as explained in the story).
Well that was an overblown trade deadline. Unless you are a Dodgers or Yankees fan. Of course, those are two of the only four teams ESPN covers anyway with the Red Sox and Cubs. Nevermind that only one of those teams has a better record than the Astros, who got back to their winning ways last night. But its what I have come to expect from the “Worldwide Leader In Sports Social Justice Bullshit And Teams From The NY, Boston, Chicago and LA Markets”. I’m sure they are happy with the results of their entire focus shifting to those markets and their “causes”. Not so sure all of their laid off employees feel the same way. But their feelings don’t matter.
NFL Preseason is about to happen. College is less than a month away. Soccer is even just around the corner. The dog days are coming to a close and I, for one, couldn’t be happier. Except for the fact that the fewer daylight hours are starting to cut into my golf. But I just have to live with that.
Anyway, we got some serious shit happening out there. Lots of insanity. Lots of hilarity. And a little pants shitting for good measure. So how about we saunter casually into…the links!.
Shenanigans. SHENANIGANS!!!!!
I know it must seem inconceivable, but apparently a government agency has been caught tampering with climate data. Of course they did the same thing in 2014 and the media poo-poo’d it away. Expect the same measures to be employed by “mainstream” media again this time around. Also, what’s up with Michael Mann’s contempt charge? Any of our Canadian brethren want to shed some light on that for us?
How fucking retarded is the NCAA? About this retarded. Which is almost as retarded as you can get in the face of the likeness rights suits they, and their member schools, are starting to get peppered with.
What a long 8 days I had. Got to see some important people and my son did ok in his diving thing. But I have never been happier to walk in the door after being gone for so long. My little ones all recognized me even after transitioning back from being a bearded old man to a fresh-faced marginally-younger man. And an absolutely wonderful weekend was had by all.
As for weekends, the Astros didn’t have a good one. Neither did Adidas after the LaVarr Ball fiasco in Las Vegas.Sorry, guys but sexism isn’t a good look. You might want to keep that in mind next time you choose sides between an official and a clown. I wish I’d have gotten a chance to give my thoughts on Spieth’s win at the British Open, but a week later is too much to ask for. I’ll wait till the PGA in two weeks to comment on golf again (at the professional level-I still reserve the right to comment on my own game).
Well that’s about it. Hope the quick sports update wasn’t too much for those of you that don’t like them. I kept it down to a single paragraph just for y’all. I’ll gradually up the dosage, though. So be prepared.
Well, seeing as I was completely checked out from all political news for the time I was gone, I may take a little time to get back into the swing. So bear with me. As for the slack-picker-uppers here at Glibs, thank you from the bottom of my heart for taking such great care of the links while I was gone. Every one of you did a better job than I would have done. And I owe each and every one of you a debt of gratitude.
Alright. We all know why you’re here. It ain’t for my rambling appreciation of my friends. It’s so you can get into…the links!
Venezuelan Presidente Maduro
Venezuelans abstain from rigged vote.Socialist paradise State-capitalist hellhole on the brink. Poor bastards. If only they’d have done their socialism harder, I’m sure it would have worked. No word yet from Frank on what he thinks.
