Daily Archives: April 12, 2017

Ayn Rand, Trump and Silicon Valley

Posted: April 12, 2017 at 9:07 am

As they plough through their GCSE revision, UK students planning to take politics A-level in the autumn can comfort themselves with this thought: come September, they will be studying one thinker who does not belong in the dusty archives of ancient political theory but is achingly on trend. For the curriculum includes a new addition: the work of Ayn Rand.

It is a timely decision because Rand, who died in 1982 and was alternately ridiculed and revered throughout her lifetime, is having a moment. Long the poster girl of a particularly hardcore brand of free-market fundamentalism the advocate of a philosophy she called the virtue of selfishness Rand has always had acolytes in the conservative political classes. The Republican speaker of the US House ofRepresentatives, Paul Ryan, is so committed a Randian, he was famous for giving every new member of his staff a copy of Rands gargantuan novel, Atlas Shrugged (along with Freidrich Hayeks Road to Serfdom). The story, oft-repeated, that his colleague in the US Senate, Rand Paul, owes his first name to his father Rons adulation of Ayn (it rhymes with mine) turns out to be apocryphal, but Paul describes himself as a fan allthe same.

Not to be left out, Britains small-staters have devised their own ways ofworshipping at the shrine of Ayn. Communities secretary Sajid Javid reads the courtroom scene in Rands The Fountainhead twice a year and has done so throughout his adult life. As a student, he read that bit aloud to the woman who is now his wife, though the exercise proved to be a one-off. AsJavid recently confessed to the Spectator, she told him that if he tried that again, he would get dumped. Meanwhile, Daniel Hannan, the Tory MEP many see as the intellectual architect of Brexit, keeps a photograph of Rand on his Brussels desk.

So the devotion of Toryboys, in boththeir UK and US incarnations, is not new. But Rands philosophy of rugged, uncompromising individualism of contempt for both the state and the lazy, conformist world of the corporate boardroom now has a follower in the White House. What is more, there is a new legion of devotees, one whose influence over our daily lives dwarfs that of most politicians. They are the titans of tech.

So who is this new entrant on the A-level syllabus, the woman hailed byone biographer as the goddess of the market? Born Alisa Zinovyevna Rosenbaum in 1905 in St Petersburg, Russia, she saw her father impoverished and her family driven to the brink of starvation by the Soviet revolution, an experience that forged her contempt for all notions of the collective good and, especially, for the state as a mechanism for ensuring equality.

An obsessive cinemagoer, she fled tothe US in 1926, swiftly making her way to Hollywood. She paid her way through a series of odd jobs, including a stint in the costume department of RKO Pictures, and landed a role as an extra in Cecil B DeMilles The King of Kings. But writing was her passion. Broadway plays and movie scripts followed, until the breakthrough came with a novel: The Fountainhead.

Published in 1943, it tells the storyof Howard Roark, an architect dedicated to the pursuit of his own vision a man who would rather seehis buildings dynamited than compromise on the perfection of his designs. All around him are mediocrities, representing either the dead hand of the state, bureaucrats serving some notional collective good, orsecond handers corporate parasites who profit from the work and vision of others.

Then, in 1957, came Atlas Shrugged, whose Penguin Classic edition stretches to1,184 pages. Here Roark gives way toJohn Galt, another capitalist genius, who leads a strike by the men of talent and drive, thereby depriving society ofthe motor of the world.

In those novels, and in the essays and lectures she turned to afterwards, Rand expounded at great and repetitive length her philosophy, soon to be taught to A-level students alongside Hobbes and Burke. Objectivism, she called it, distilled by her as the belief that man exists for his own sake, that the pursuit of his own happiness is his highest moral purpose, that he must not sacrifice himself to others, nor sacrifice others to himself. She had lots to say about everything else too an avowed atheist, she was dismissive of any knowledge that was not rooted in what you could see in front of your eyes. She had no patience for instinct or intuition or any form of just knowing.

The Fountainhead was serially rejected and published to ambivalent reviews, but it became a word-of-mouth hit. Over the coming years, a cult following arose around Rand (as well as something very close to an actual cult among her inner circle, known, no doubt ironically, as the Collective). Her works struck a chord with a particular kind of reader: adolescent, male and thirsting for an ideology brimming with moral certainty. As the New Yorker said in 2009: Most readers make their first and last trip to Galts Gulch the hidden-valley paradise of born-again capitalists featured in Atlas Shrugged, its solid-gold dollar sign standing like a maypole sometime between leaving Middle-earth and packing for college.

But for some, objectivism stuck. Perhaps her most significant early follower was Alan Greenspan, later to serve as chairman of the US Federal Reserve for 19 years. In the 1950s, Greenspan was one of the Collective, and he would be among the mourners at her funeral in 1982, where one floral wreath was fashioned into that same 6ft dollar sign, now understood to be the logo of Randism.

Greenspan is the link between the original Rand cult and what we might think of as the second age of Rand: theThatcher-Reagan years, when the laissez-faire, free-market philosophy went from the crankish obsession of rightwing economists to the governing credo of Anglo-American capitalism. Greenspan, appointed as the USs central banker by Ronald Reagan in 1987, firmly believed that market forces, unimpeded, were the best mechanism for the management and distribution of a societys resources. That view which Greenspan would rethink after the crash of 2008-9 rested on the assumption that economic actors behave rationally, always acting in their own self-interest. The primacy of self-interest, rather than altruism or any other nonmaterial motive, was, of course, a central tenet of Randian thought.

Put more baldly, the reason why Republicans and British Conservatives started giving each other copies of Atlas Shrugged in the 80s was that Rand seemed to grant intellectual heft to theprevailing ethos of the time. Her insistence on the morality of rational self-interest and the virtue of selfishness sounded like an upmarket version of the slogan, derived from Oliver Stones Wall Street, that defined the era: greed is good. Rand was Gordon Gekko with A-levels.

The third age of Rand came with the financial crash and the presidency of Barack Obama that followed. Spooked by the fear that Obama was bent on expanding the state, the Tea Party and others returned to the old-time religion of rolling back government. As Rand biographer Jennifer Burns told Quartz: In moments of liberal dominance, people turn to her because they see Atlas Shrugged as a prophecy as to whats going to happen if the government is given too much power.

In that context, it seemed only natural that one of the success stories of the 2012 presidential campaign was a bid for the Republican nomination bythe ultra-libertarian and Rand-admiring Texas congressman Ron Paul, father ofSenator Rand Paul, whose insurgent movement was a forerunner for much of what would unfold in 2016. Paul offered a radical downsizing of the federal government. Like Ayn Rand, he believed the states role should be limited to providing an army,a police force, a court system and not much else.

But Rand presented a problem for US Republicans otherwise keen to embrace her legacy. She was a devout atheist, withering in her disdain for the nonobjectivist mysticism of religion. Yet, inside the Republican party, those with libertarian leanings have only been able to make headway by riding pillion with social conservatives and, specifically, white evangelical Christians. The dilemma was embodied by Paul Ryan, named as Mitt Romneys running mate in the 2012 contest. Ryan moved fast toplay down the Rand influence, preferring to say his philosophy was inspired by St Thomas Aquinas.

What of the current moment, shaping up to be the fourth age of Rand? The Randian politicians are still in place: Ryan is now boosted by a cabinet crammed with objectivists. Secretary of state Rex Tillerson named Atlas Shrugged as his favourite book, while Donald Trumps first choice (later dropped) as labor secretary, Andy Puzder, is the CEO of a restaurant chainowned by Roark Capital Group a private equity fund named after the hero of The Fountainhead. CIA director Mike Pompeo is another conservative who says Atlas Shrugged really had animpact on me.

Of course, this merely makes these men like their boss. Trump is notoriously no reader of books: he has only ever spoken about liking three works of fiction. But, inevitably, one of them was The Fountainhead. It relates to business, beauty, life and inner emotions. That book relates to ... everything, hesaid last year.

Rand scholars find this affinity of Trumps puzzling. Not least because Trumps offer to the electorate in 2016 was not a promise of an unfettered free market. It was a pledge to make the US government an active meddler in the market, negotiating trade deals, bringing back jobs. His public bullying of big companies pressing Ford or the air-conditioner manufacturer Carrier to keep their factories in the US was precisely the kind of big government intrusion upon the natural rhythms of capitalism that appalled Rand.

So why does Trump claim to be inspired by her? The answer, surely, is that Rand lionises the alpha male capitalist entrepreneur, the man of action who towers over the little people and the pettifogging bureaucrats and gets things done. As Jennifer Burns puts it: For a long time, she has been beloved by disruptors, entrepreneurs, venture capitalists, people who see themselves as shaping the future, taking risky bets, moving out in front of everyone else, relying only on their own instincts, intuition and knowledge, andgoing against the grain.

Which brings us to the new wave ofRandians, outside both politics and conventional conservatism. They are the princes of Silicon Valley, the masters of the start-up, a cadre of young Roarksand Galts, driven by their own genius to remake the world and damn the consequences.

So it should be no surprise that when Vanity Fair surveyed these tycoons of the digital age, many of them pointed to a single guiding star. Rand, the magazine suggested, might just be the most influential figure in the industry. When the CEO of Uber, Travis Kalanick, had to choose an avatar for his Twitter account in 2015, he opted for the cover of The Fountainhead. Peter Thiel, Facebooks first major investor and a rare example of a man who straddles both Silicon Valley and Trumpworld, isa Randian. Meanwhile, Steve Jobs issaid by his Apple co-founder, Steve Wozniak, to have regarded Atlas Shrugged as one of his guides in life.

Among these new masters of the universe, the Rand influence is manifest less in party political libertarianism than in a single-minded determination to follow a personal vision, regardless of the impact. No wonder the tech companies dont mind destroying, say, the taxi business or the traditional news media. Such concerns are beneath the young, powerful men at the top: even to listen to such concerns would be to betray the singularity of their own pure vision. It would be to break Rands golden rule, by which the visionary must never sacrifice himself to others.

So Rand, dead 35 years, lives again, her hand guiding the rulers of our age in both Washington and San Francisco. Hers is an ideology that denounces altruism, elevates individualism into afaith and gives a spurious moral licence to raw selfishness. That it is having a moment now is no shock. Such an ideology will find a ready audience for as long as there are human beings who feel the rush of greed and the lure of unchecked power, longing to succumb to both without guilt. Which is to say: for ever.

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Ayn Rand, Trump and Silicon Valley

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Ayn Rand Rules the World: How She Conquered Silicon Valleyand Donald Trump – AlterNet

Posted: at 9:06 am

Ayn Rand Photo Credit: YouTube Screengrab

As they plough through their GCSE revision, UK students planning to take politics A-level in the autumn can comfort themselves with this thought: come September, they will be studying one thinker who does not belong in the dusty archives of ancient political theory but is achingly on trend. For thecurriculumincludes a new addition: the work ofAyn Rand.

It is a timely decision because Rand, who died in 1982 and was alternately ridiculed and revered throughout her lifetime, is having a moment. Long the poster girl of a particularly hardcore brand of free-market fundamentalism the advocate of a philosophy she called the virtue of selfishness Rand has always had acolytes in the conservative political classes. The Republican speaker of the US House ofRepresentatives, Paul Ryan, is so committed a Randian, he was famous forgiving every new member of his staffa copy of Rands gargantuan novel,Atlas Shrugged(along with Freidrich HayeksRoad to Serfdom). The story, oft-repeated, that his colleague in the US Senate,Rand Paul, owes his first name to his father Rons adulation of Ayn (it rhymes with mine) turns out to be apocryphal, butPaul describes himself as a fan allthe same.

Not to be left out, Britains small-staters have devised their own ways ofworshipping at the shrine of Ayn. Communities secretary Sajid Javid reads the courtroom scene in RandsThe Fountainheadtwice a year and has done so throughout his adult life. As a student, he read that bit aloud to the woman who is now his wife, though the exercise proved to be a one-off. AsJavidrecently confessed to the Spectator, she told him that if he tried that again, he would get dumped. Meanwhile, Daniel Hannan, the Tory MEP many see as the intellectual architect of Brexit,keeps a photograph of Rand on his Brussels desk.

So the devotion of Toryboys, in boththeir UK and US incarnations, is not new. But Rands philosophy of rugged, uncompromising individualism of contempt for both the state and the lazy, conformist world of the corporate boardroom now has a follower in the White House. What is more, there is a new legion of devotees, one whose influence over our daily lives dwarfs that of most politicians. They are the titans of tech.

So who is this new entrant on the A-level syllabus, the woman hailed byone biographer as the goddess of the market? Born Alisa Zinovyevna Rosenbaum in 1905 in St Petersburg, Russia, she saw her father impoverished and her family driven to the brink of starvation by the Soviet revolution, an experience that forged her contempt for all notions of the collective good and, especially, for the state as a mechanism for ensuring equality.

An obsessive cinemagoer, she fled tothe US in 1926, swiftly making her way to Hollywood. She paid her way through a series of odd jobs, including a stint in the costume department of RKO Pictures, and landed a role as an extra in Cecil B DeMilles The King of Kings. But writing was her passion. Broadway plays and movie scripts followed, until the breakthrough came with a novel: The Fountainhead.

Published in 1943, it tells the storyof Howard Roark, an architect dedicated to the pursuit of his own vision a man who would rather seehis buildings dynamited than compromise on the perfection of his designs. All around him are mediocrities, representing either the dead hand of the state, bureaucrats serving some notional collective good, orsecond handers corporate parasites who profit from the work and vision of others.

Then, in 1957, came Atlas Shrugged, whosePenguin Classic editionstretches to1,184 pages. Here Roark gives way toJohn Galt, another capitalist genius, who leads a strike by the men of talent and drive, thereby depriving society ofthe motor of the world.

In those novels, and in the essays and lectures she turned to afterwards, Rand expounded at great and repetitive length her philosophy, soon to be taught to A-level students alongside Hobbes and Burke. Objectivism, she called it, distilled by her as the belief that man exists for his own sake, that the pursuit of his own happiness is his highest moral purpose, that he must not sacrifice himself to others, nor sacrifice others to himself. She had lots to say about everything else too an avowed atheist, she was dismissive of any knowledge that was not rooted in what you could see in front of your eyes. She had no patience for instinct or intuition or any form of just knowing.

The Fountainhead was serially rejected and published to ambivalent reviews, but it became a word-of-mouth hit. Over the coming years, a cult following arose around Rand (as well as something very close to an actual cult among her inner circle, known, no doubt ironically, as the Collective). Her works struck a chord with a particular kind of reader: adolescent, male and thirsting for an ideology brimming with moral certainty. Asthe New Yorker said in 2009: Most readers make their first and last trip to Galts Gulch the hidden-valley paradise of born-again capitalists featured in Atlas Shrugged, its solid-gold dollar sign standing like a maypole sometime between leaving Middle-earth and packing for college.

But for some, objectivism stuck. Perhaps her most significant early follower wasAlan Greenspan, later to serve as chairman of the US Federal Reserve for 19 years. In the 1950s, Greenspan was one of the Collective, and he would beamong the mourners at her funeral in 1982, where one floral wreath was fashioned into that same 6ft dollar sign, now understood to be the logo of Randism.

Greenspan is the link between the original Rand cult and what we might think of as the second age of Rand: theThatcher-Reagan years, when the laissez-faire, free-market philosophy went from the crankish obsession of rightwing economists to the governing credo of Anglo-American capitalism. Greenspan, appointed as the USs central banker by Ronald Reagan in 1987, firmly believed that market forces, unimpeded, were the best mechanism for the management and distribution of a societys resources. That view which Greenspan wouldrethink after the crash of 2008-9 rested on the assumption that economic actors behave rationally, always acting in their own self-interest. The primacy of self-interest, rather than altruism or any other nonmaterial motive, was, of course, a central tenet of Randian thought.

Put more baldly, the reason why Republicans and British Conservatives started giving each other copies of Atlas Shrugged in the 80s was that Rand seemed to grant intellectual heft to theprevailing ethos of the time. Her insistence on the morality of rational self-interest and the virtue of selfishness sounded like an upmarket version of the slogan, derived from Oliver Stones Wall Street, that defined the era:greed is good. Rand was Gordon Gekko with A-levels.

The third age of Rand came with the financial crash and the presidency of Barack Obama that followed. Spooked by the fear that Obama was bent on expanding the state, the Tea Party and others returned to the old-time religion of rolling back government. AsRand biographer Jennifer Burns told Quartz: In moments of liberal dominance, people turn to her because they see Atlas Shrugged as a prophecy as to whats going to happen if the government is given too much power.

In that context, it seemed only natural that one of the success stories of the 2012 presidential campaign was a bid for the Republican nomination bythe ultra-libertarian and Rand-admiring Texas congressmanRon Paul, father ofSenator Rand Paul, whose insurgent movement was a forerunner for much of what would unfold in 2016. Paul offered a radical downsizing of the federal government. Like Ayn Rand, he believed the states role should be limited to providing an army,a police force, a court system and not much else.

But Rand presented a problem for US Republicans otherwise keen to embrace her legacy. She was a devout atheist, withering in her disdain for the nonobjectivist mysticism of religion. Yet, inside the Republican party, those with libertarian leanings have only been able to make headway by riding pillion with social conservatives and, specifically, white evangelical Christians. The dilemma wasembodied by Paul Ryan, named as Mitt Romneys running mate in the 2012 contest. Ryan moved fast toplay down the Rand influence, preferring to say his philosophy was inspired by St Thomas Aquinas.

What of the current moment, shaping up to be the fourth age of Rand? The Randian politicians are still in place: Ryan is now boosted by acabinet crammed with objectivists. Secretary of state Rex Tillerson named Atlas Shrugged as his favourite book, while Donald Trumps first choice (later dropped) as labor secretary, Andy Puzder, is the CEO of a restaurant chainowned by Roark Capital Group a private equity fund named after the hero of The Fountainhead. CIA director Mike Pompeo is another conservative who says Atlas Shrugged really had animpact on me.

Of course, this merely makes these men like their boss. Trump is notoriously no reader of books: he has only ever spoken about liking three works of fiction. But, inevitably, one of them was The Fountainhead. It relates to business, beauty, life and inner emotions. That book relates to ... everything,hesaid last year.

Rand scholars find this affinity of Trumps puzzling. Not least because Trumps offer to the electorate in 2016 was not a promise of an unfettered free market. It was a pledge to make the US government an active meddler in the market, negotiating trade deals, bringing back jobs. His public bullying of big companies pressing Ford or the air-conditioner manufacturer Carrier to keep their factories in the US was precisely the kind of big government intrusion upon the natural rhythms of capitalism that appalled Rand.

Which brings us to the new wave ofRandians, outside both politics and conventional conservatism. They are the princes of Silicon Valley, the masters of the start-up, a cadre of young Roarksand Galts, driven by their own genius to remake the world and damn the consequences.

So it should be no surprise that when Vanity Fairsurveyed these tycoons of the digital age, many of them pointed to a single guiding star. Rand, the magazine suggested, might just be the most influential figure in the industry. When the CEO of Uber, Travis Kalanick, had to choose an avatar for his Twitter account in 2015, he opted for the cover of The Fountainhead. Peter Thiel, Facebooks first major investor and a rare example of a man who straddles both Silicon Valley and Trumpworld, isa Randian. Meanwhile, Steve Jobs issaid by his Apple co-founder, Steve Wozniak, to have regarded Atlas Shrugged as one of his guides in life.

Among these new masters of the universe, the Rand influence is manifest less in party political libertarianism than in a single-minded determination to follow a personal vision, regardless of the impact. No wonder the tech companies dont mind destroying, say, the taxi business or the traditional news media. Such concerns are beneath the young, powerful men at the top: even to listen to such concerns would be to betray the singularity of their own pure vision. It would be to break Rands golden rule, by which the visionary must never sacrifice himself to others.

So Rand, dead 35 years, lives again, her hand guiding the rulers of our age in both Washington and San Francisco. Hers is an ideology that denounces altruism, elevates individualism into afaith and gives a spurious moral licence to raw selfishness. That it is having a moment now is no shock. Such an ideology will find a ready audience for as long as there are human beings who feel the rush of greed and the lure of unchecked power, longing to succumb to both without guilt. Which is to say: for ever.

Jonathan Freedland writes a weekly column for the Guardian. He is also a regular contributor to the New York Times and the New York Review of Books, and presents BBC Radio 4's contemporary history series, The Long View. He was named columnist of the year in the 2002 What the Papers Say awards and in 2008 was awarded the David Watt prize for journalism. He has also published seven books, including five bestselling thrillers under the name Sam Bourne. He tweets as@freedland.

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Movies stuck in development hell – DigitalSpy.com

Posted: at 9:06 am

Hollywood's a tricky beast, and getting a movie made involves millions of people and bajillions of dollars. Or even pounds, occasionally. But it's still depressing when some of the coolest projects announced just don't seem to quite happen.

Especially when top bods are ploughing money into something like Ben Hur, which we totally could have told them wasn't a very good idea.

There are thousands of movies in development. Right now, there are in fact 28,413 movies listed on IMDb as "in development", and a lot of them are never going to see the light of day.

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But these are the ones we really, really hope might get shuffled to the top of the pile again, simply because they clearly would've been awesome.

20th Century Fox Neill Blomkamp/Instagram

District 9 was exceptional, Chappie was cute and funny, and okay, Elysium wasn't very good. But Blomkamp is a director with flair and edge and his Alien movie just sounded really interesting.

There was talk of Newt and Hicks possibly making a return, Sigourney Weaver was well up for it, and the concept art just blew us away but Alien: Covenant held things up, with Sir Ridley wanting his Prometheus sequel to come out first.

Now Blomkamp says the chances of it getting made at all are slim. Ah well, you never know, these things have a habit of reappearing.

It's ironic that arguably the most literate, grand and movie-like video game of all time has not made it to the big screen, while disposable tosh like House of the Dead and Doom gets farted out with glee by Uwe Boll and their ilk. The reason, as ever, is money and audience.

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Pirates of the Caribbean's Gore Verbinski, who signed on as director and who we reckon would have nailed the atmosphere of the underwater city of Rapture reckoned the project was just eight weeks from shooting before it was canned.

"It was devastating," he told IGN. "Everyone wants to protect their IP it started to smell a little funky. I think at the time there had been some expensive R-rated movies that hadn't worked out."

Based on right-wing pin-up Ayn Rand's weighty tome on the art of selfishness, Atlas Shrugged, BioShock is an unapologetically adult, cerebral take on a supposed utopia that goes very wrong when all restrictions on scientific progress are removed, reducing the population to thieves, murderers and drug addicts, so a PG-13 was never quite going to cut it.

And with the game's developer Irrational closing since, this one may now be swimming with the fishes forever.

Rex Shutterstock

We're a bit torn about this one. Beetlejuice is an absolute classic, one of our favourites of the '80s when Tim Burton was at his peak. It was greenlit in 2016, with a script by Seth Grahame-Smith, and Winona Ryder and Michael Keaton potentially attached. But it's all gone a bit quiet since last year.

Thing is (arguably), Burton hasn't made an actually good live-action movie since Sleepy Hollow, or maybe Sweeney Todd if we're being generous. And the last thing we want is Beetlejuice ruined. So: "Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice," (but only if it's good) "Beetlejuice!"

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Libraries Report Staggering Waitlists for ‘The Handmaid’s Tale … – Signature Reads

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In libraries across America, readers are clamoring for a copy of Margaret Atwoods dystopian classic, presumably to stay ahead of the new Hulu series that debuts April 27. In New York City alone, more than 500 people are patiently waiting their turn, and libraries in Houston, San Francisco, Chicago, and other major cities are likewise reporting a queuethat could end up being hundreds deep. While the NYPL declines to speculate on the impetus thatsdriving people to reserve the book in such great numbers, HuffPo feels comfortable ascribing it to the current political climate, which even the most zen among us might describe as dire.

Meanwhile The New Yorker takes even more careful aim, sketching a profile of Atwood as a Prophet of Dystopia. Amid the expected reel of career highlights and more recent revelations from the bestselling author on the subject of American politics (If the election of Donald Trump were fiction, Atwood maintains, it would be too implausible to satisfy readers), this profile contains a lovely anecdote about Atwoods penchant for palmistry. Can you imagine letting someone this keenly observant anywhere near your lifeline and are you strong enough to handle hearing whatever she sees there?

Stephen King has pissed off the clowns, and he knows it. The author acknowledged in a tweet this week that good clowns everywhere are likely to be fuming about the resurgence of anti-clown sentiment thats sure to come along with the new adaptation of It. King tried to excuse the effects of his masterpiece on societysmost maligned class ofentertainers:Sorry, most are great, he wrote, BUT kids have always been scared of clowns. Dont kill the messengers for the message. That may sound like hes nervous about retaliation, but really its a sort of ethical test for all clownfolk what good clown would ever think of doing him harm?

Its Ayn Rands world; were all just stuck living in it. Read along as The Guardian explores the objectivist authors clout in twenty-first-century power games, from the White House(President Trump claims to love The Fountainhead, despite the persistence of urban legends claiming he cant read) to Silicon Valley, where Randians run rampant. When the CEO of Uber, Travis Kalanick, had to choose an avatar for his Twitter account in 2015, he opted for the cover of The Fountainhead, their article claims. Peter Thiel, Facebooks first major investor and a rare example of a man who straddles both Silicon Valley and Trumpworld, isa Randian. Meanwhile, Steve Jobs issaid by his Apple co-founder, Steve Wozniak, to have regarded Atlas Shrugged as one of his guides in life.' If you want to understand ourtimes, just pay Ayn a visit at your local library it will give you something to freak out over until The Handmaids Tale is back in circulation.

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Libertarianism & Feminism – Being Libertarian

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Being Libertarian
Libertarianism & Feminism
Being Libertarian
That feminism and libertarianism seem to be at odds with each other, in the current U.S. political climate, is something that has recently perturbed me. On the surface, the two ideologies share many commonalities such as equal opportunity and ...

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I’m A Libertarian Calling For Universal Healthcare: Here’s Why! – Being Libertarian

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Being Libertarian
I'm A Libertarian Calling For Universal Healthcare: Here's Why!
Being Libertarian
What I'm proposing probably won't make me the most popular libertarian in the world, but I'm looking for something which is actually going to pass and still manage to do some good. So, this article won't be about abolishing Medicare or Medicaid, nor ...
The Future of Brand ManagementMorning Consult
How Voters Feel About Their Senators Ahead of Election Day (September 2016) - Morning ConsultMorning Consult

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Libertarian Budget Director Mick Mulvaney Rising Star In Trump … – The Liberty Conservative

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The Liberty Conservative
Libertarian Budget Director Mick Mulvaney Rising Star In Trump ...
The Liberty Conservative
Budget Director Mick Mulvaney is "on the rise" within the White House, according to a report by Politico on Tuesday. "When thinking about up and comers in the ...

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Idaho libertarian conservatives furious about Otter’s vetoes of licensing, civil forfeiture – Pacific Northwest Inlander (blog)

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"He had a real opportunity to demonstrate that he is on the side of liberty," says Wayne Hoffman, director of the Idaho Freedom Foundation. "He failed miserably."

The most recent outrage: Otter's vetoes of a cosmetology licensure bill and a civil forfeiture bill. Both are key issues for libertarians, who argue that requiring licenses for jobs like "barber" or "makeup artist" end up punishing entrepreneurs and newcomers, in order to artificially shield established businesses from would-be competition.

Meanwhile, when they look at civil forfeiture where police can seize cash and other personal property without a conviction if they suspect it may be connected to certain crimes they see serious due-process violations.

"Idaho Governor Flips Off Libertarians With Both Hands, Vetoes Asset Forfeiture AND Licensing Reforms," reads a headline at the libertarian Reason magazine. The subhead reads: "Is he trying to make libertarians angry, or is he just a puppet of special interests?"

North Idaho Rep. Vito Barbieri is not exactly a libertarian. (Here he is expounding on Islama couple of years ago, for example.) But a recent Facebook post showed just how little respect some conservatives have for the Republican governor.

"Governor Otter hasn't a Republican bone in his body, acting more like a public school teacher bent on growing the Administrative State over public interests, than a Statesman with character, guts, and vision," Barbieri writes. "[Republicans in Name Only] like Otter put State needs first, Administrative bureaucrats second, and taxpayers last. It's too bad we have to wait two more years to put this self-proclaimed libertarian cowboy out to pasture." Compared to some attempted civil forfeiture reforms, like those that require a guilty verdict before any property is taken, the Idaho bill was modest. It would require more evidence that property had been associated with a crime than simply proximity. And it would require law enforcement agencies to start tracking how much civil forfeiture money is being collected, and what it's being spent on.

"We ask law enforcement to explain how they utilize civil asset forfeiture," Hoffman says. "They dont have an answer. They cant really find out."

The bill was popular in the legislature. Nobody in the Idaho Senate voted against it, and only a handful of state representatives, including Coeur d'Alene Reps. Luke Malek and Paul Amador, voted against it in the House.

But in Otter's veto message, he called the bill a solution in search of a problem.

"There have been no allegations that Idaho law enforcement officers are illegally or inappropriately seizing property from alleged drug traffickers," he says in a statement.

The accuracy of that statement depends on the definition of "inappropriate."

An investigation in the Twin Falls Times-News revealed a case in 2010, when Twin Falls County Sheriffs deputies raided the home of a couple they suspected were selling drugs. Theynetted a small baggie of marijuana and$12,010 in cash. The couple was never charged with anything, but the sheriff returned only $3,000.

Then there's an anecdote shared by theDKT Liberty Project, which alleges that Idaho State Police pulled over a 35-year-old driver and searched his car when they were alerted by drug-sniffing dogs.

"Although they didnt find any drugs, they did find $4,200 in cash, which the man had set aside to pay for his divorce lawyer," writes AC Bushnell, program director for the Liberty Project. The state patrol refused to repay the money.

Otter argues that if you're selling drugs, you should be afraid of losing your property.

"It is my view that it is right and proper for drug dealers to have a healthy fear of losing their personal assets if they are caught breaking the law," Otter continues. "But while seeking to ease those fears, this legislation goes even further by placing an annual reporting requirement on law enforcement."

Reason writer Eric Boehm responds with snark.

"Who needs accountability from the police?" he writes. "Certainly not Otter, who seems willing to believe anything the law enforcement special interests' lobbyists tell him."

The cosmetology bill, meanwhile, was a little more controversial, but still received broad support. It would have combined the barber and cosmetology boards, reduced the hours required for a license, and exempted some stylists like wedding makeup artists or people demonstrating hair curlers at malls from the licensure requirements.

Otter's biggest objection was to an amendment that allowed the board to retroactively reinstate an expired license.

"I will not allow the State of Idaho to be subjected to legal liability for falsely representing the licensure status of those seeking federal student loans for their training," Otter writes in his veto statement.

"That is clear and complete horseshit," Hoffman says. He cites an example of a person who ran a cosmetology college in Twin Falls and ended up losing accreditation because his licensing agreement had lapsed.

"A libertarian governor would say, 'Oh my gosh, we drove him out of business!'" Hoffman says. "What can we do to save this businessman in Twin Falls from having to go under?"

Earlier this year, Hoffman and Reason also took aim at Otter's vetoof a bill allowing the use of Cannabidiol oils.

As for Barbieri? Here's Vito on the vetoes:

Otter's Veto stamp proves once and for all RINO's have a perfect example from which to emulate their talk of citizen liberty while acting to empower bureaucrats.

Tax food? No problem. It's a steady source of Revenue for the Bureaucratic State.

Protect licensing Boards, limit competition, and regulate dangerous occupations like sign language and hair cutters? Certainly! Gotta consider those self-serving 'stakeholders'!

Two of Otter's recent Veto's have the same ideological base as his Veto seven years ago of the State Nullification effort: They ALL protect the status quo with the effect of limiting legislative power to represent the taxpayers of Idaho.

RINO's like Otter put State needs first, Administrative bureaucrats second, and taxpayers last.

It's too bad we have to wait two more years to put this self-proclaimed libertarian cowboy out to pasture.

Go here to read the rest:

Idaho libertarian conservatives furious about Otter's vetoes of licensing, civil forfeiture - Pacific Northwest Inlander (blog)

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Republicans keep Kansas House seat in special election – CNN

Posted: at 9:06 am

Estes defeated Democrat Jim Thompson, a civil rights attorney and Army veteran, and Libertarian Chris Rockhold.

The seat was considered to be by Republicans a straight win -- until an energized Democratic base left Estes with a smaller advantage.

Trump tweeted about the race Tuesday morning, urging voters to get out and support Estes over his Democratic challenger.

On Monday, Estes had another influential GOP name stumping for him -- Texas Sen. Ted Cruz. Cruz, who won the state in the 2016 Republican primaries, introduced Estes at a rally and called on district residents to turn out to vote for the Republican.

"Today the eyes of the whole country are upon Kansas," Cruz said at the rally. "This election, this special election tomorrow, makes a difference."

Also, the National Republican Congressional Committee spent nearly $100,000 on ads in the closing days.

Trump congratulated Estes on Wednesday: "Great win in Kansas last night for Ron Estes, easily winning the Congressional race against the Dems, who spent heavily & predicted victory!"

The district is solidly Republican -- Trump won the district in the general election by 27 points and 2012 Republican nominee Mitt Romney won the district by eight points. A Democrat hasn't represented the district since Dan Glickman was ousted in the 1994 Republican wave election.

Meanwhile, the Democratic Campaign Committee has not spent money to help Thompson at all -- and the Kansas State Democratic Party rejected his requests for funding mailers.

The rest is here:

Republicans keep Kansas House seat in special election - CNN

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The Effect of Government Regulation is Mass Incarceration – Being Libertarian

Posted: at 9:06 am


Being Libertarian
The Effect of Government Regulation is Mass Incarceration
Being Libertarian
Within political circles throughout the United States there has been an indefatigable debate on the role government should play in the economy. There are libertarians and conservatives that are proponents of limited government; socialists and welfare ...

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The Effect of Government Regulation is Mass Incarceration - Being Libertarian

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