themarketswork

a common sense approach to a liberal world

The Beauty of Negative Rights

by

“The Constitution is a charter of negative rather than positive liberties” – Judge Richard Posner

Yesterday I stumbled across a quote from Senator Rand Paul that someone had posted in a Facebook Group. The quote comes from a Subcommittee Hearing on Healthcare on May 11, 2017. You can find a video of the hearing here. The quote made by Paul starts at 1:37:05. It reads as follows:

“With regard to the idea of whether you have a right to health care, you have realize what that implies. It’s not an abstraction. I’m a physician. That means you have a right to come to my house and conscript me. It means you believe in slavery. It means that you’re going to enslave not only me, but the janitor at my hospital, the person who cleans my office, the assistants who work in my office, the nurses.

Basically, once you imply a belief in a right to someone’s services — do you have a right to plumbing? Do you have a right to water? Do you have right to food? — you’re basically saying you believe in slavery…

I’m a physician in your community and you say you have a right to health care. You have a right to beat down my door with the police, escort me away and force me to take care of you? That’s ultimately what the right to free health care would be.”Continue Reading

The Struggle Revealed

by

“A Republic, if you can keep it” – Benjamin Franklin

It finally happened.

Townhalls may never be the same.

There were lots of nice words spoken by Senators appearing in bipartisan press conferences. Not so on Twitter.

140 characters do not lend themselves to nuanced discussion.Continue Reading

James Comey & Questions That Linger

by

“If I find out that people were leaking information about our investigation, whether to reporters or private parties, there will be severe consequences.” – James Comey – May 3 2017

James Comey released a surprisingly detailed Opening Statement the day before his infamous hearing. I discuss it here. It was so detailed that many predicted Comey’s actual testimony would prove to be a non-event. That view was not entirely accurate. Comey’s actual testimony proved to be a layered affair. There were the first impressions, then some deeper takeaways – and then further questions. I cover Comey’s testimony here. In it I discuss some serious timeline inconsistencies – and some inconsistencies in how he handled this affair versus the Clinton Criminal Investigation.

Despite the analysis, nagging questions remain. Questions that I do not have immediate answers to.Continue Reading

The Timeline Problems of James Comey’s Testimony

by

FBI Director James Comey delivered his long-awaited testimony to the Senate Intelligence Committee today. There are at least two significant timeline issues with Comey’s testimony.

Marco Rubio’s questioning summed up the hearing succinctly and in the most salient manner:

RUBIO: What it comes down to is the president asked three things of you. Asked for your loyalty. You said you’d be loyally honest.

COMEY: Honestly loyal.

RUBIO: Honestly loyal. He asked you on one occasion to let the Mike Flynn thing go because he was a good guy. By the way, you’re aware he said the same thing in the press the next day. He is a good guy, treated unfairly, et cetera. I imagine your FBI agents read that.

COMEY: I’m sure they did.Continue Reading

Comey’s Statement & His Political Undermining of President Trump

by

Former FBI Director James Comey released his opening statement ahead of his testimony before the Senate Intelligence Committee on June 8 2017. My assessment follows the highlights of Comey’s statement.

Comey notes nine one-on-one interactions – three in person and six on the phone – with President Trump but highlights only five. He states:

January 6 2017:

on January 6 2017, he informed President Trump that he was not under investigation – without President Trump asking him about the matter.

he documented his first conversation with President Trump on a laptop immediately after the meeting.

he decided to create written records of conversations with President Trump from that point forward.

he did not engage in this practice with others – including written documentation of conversations with Obama – of which he says there were only two in eight years.

the FBI Investigation is a counter-intelligence investigation – not a criminal one.Continue Reading

The Timely Death of the DOJ Slush Fund

by

Lots of news this week with the Senate Intelligence Committee Hearing underway and the breathless anticipation of former FBI Director James Comey’s testimony slated for tomorrow. Which is why this action by Attorney General Jeff Sessions has largely slipped under the radar.

A couple months back I wrote about The Department of Justice’s Slush Fund.

The Working Group was created within the Justice Department in 2012 as a means of prosecution and punishment for those perceived to be responsible for the financial crisis of 2008. With the full weight of the Department of Justice behind it, the Working Group reached multi-billion settlements with virtually every major bank in America.

According to a Congressional Committee Report – Stop Settlement Slush Funds Act of 2016:Continue Reading

Trump’s Middle East Speech & the GCC’s Rebuke of Qatar

by

Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates, the Maldives, Yemen and Libya have all announced they are cutting ties with Qatar. The countries have ordered their citizens out of Qatar and have given Qatari citizens residing in their countries fourteen days to return to Qatar. Qatari diplomats are being ejected immediately – within 48 hours. Air travel is restricted immediately and land routes are being blocked.

In a closely coordinated move, Bahrain was the first to break ties with Qatar, followed quickly by Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Egypt, Yemen, Libya and the Maldives.

At this point, Kuwait and Oman are the only members of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) that have retained ties with Qatar (also a GCC member). Don’t be surprised if these countries join as well.

At the risk of understatement, this is significant news – and represents an unprecedented level of coordination between the Arab nations.Continue Reading

Three Subpoenas – Unmasking the Unmaskers

by

Yesterday the Wall Street Journal reported that seven subpoenas were issued by the House Intelligence Committee.

Four of the Subpoenas were for Mike Flynn and President Trump’s personal attorney Michael Cohen – one for each man and one for their respective companies. According to Fox News, these four subpoenas were “issued at behest of the committee’s ranking Democrat, Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA), and were said to be duplicative of subpoenas already issued by the Senate Intelligence Committee, which is conducting a parallel probe”. As such they are not the real story – indeed, they were almost certainly issued by Schiff as a distraction from the real story.Continue Reading

John Sununu and the CNN Russian Smackdown

by

Just as Democrats are allergic to the truth, I’m allergic to stupidity. Which is why I missed this epic takedown provided by John Sununu during an interview on CNN. This video – at bottom of page – comes to you courtesy of The Conservative Treehouse. Folks over there apparently have a higher pain threshold than do I. Give their site a look-see. Always thought-provoking.

Sununu utterly destroys CNN’s Alisyn Camerota’s attempts at maintaining the Russian Narrative. Note that Sununu was highly critical of Trump during the campaign – which is perhaps why CNN put him on. The interview did not go as they expected…

A couple of varied quotes to give you a taste:Continue Reading

John Brennan Heads for the Exits

by

CIA Director John Brennan testified before the full House Intelligence Committee on May 23, 2017. And judging from his opening statements, Mr. Brennan had closely watched former FBI Director James Comey’s testimony on March 20th 2017.

The full video of Brennan’s testimony is below (transcript here). I will highlight some key moments:Continue Reading