 Well, we're gonna cover a number of different things today, but certainly need to comment on Trump's first hundred days and What's he done? success failure net positive net negative And so how do you value it? How do you even look at this and evaluate now? I think most of you listening to the show for a while know my general negative view of Trump I don't think that has changed, but we'll talk about that. I also want to talk about the Pope the Pope gave an important, I guess statement at At this His at the Pontiff's Academy of Social Sciences who knew there was such a thing that's going on this weekend and Making important statement about morality about economics and about libertarians He commented about libertarians and and what part of what's interesting is the only news outlet to report on this was It was Breitbart, so that's kind of interesting. Maybe that'll connect our discussion of Trump to our discussion of the Pope Through Breitbart and then I also want to talk about kind of the Catholic libertarians response at least one response that I read on reason magazine to what the Pope said and I found I found it particularly interesting and indicative of kind of some of the Concerns many of us Objectives have with libertarians But before we get to all that and and we can talk about other things French elections that was interesting French elections are interesting We'll comment a little bit about that if we have time take your calls Of course, you can call in with any kind of questions three or comments or suggestions of this yell at me 347-324-3075 we don't have many people to call in and yell at me That's a little surprising 347-324-3075 you can call in and You know everything seems to be rolling sound seems to be good. I think Facebook live is on so some of you are watching this Facebook live you can find it on Facebook live so All right, here we go You know, I want to talk about the Pope a little later I want to start out actually by saying something about last week show so last week show if you remember was basically this question about Are we living in the worst of times? Are we living in the best of times? You know and and You know how how bad are things really today and and How do you really more importantly? I was hoping that what to get out of it is it's how to even evaluate it how to look at it and I want to correct an impression that I think a lot of people got out of that show and Justifiably because I think I gave that impression and that is the impression that I believe that we are living in the best of times This is fantastic that that that today is the best time to be alive and you know, there's respect in which I believe that And that Objectiveness generally a too pessimistic and you know, we're not gonna follow for cliff and things are not getting worse and all that That is not what I intended to say last week if I actually did say that I'm not sure I did but if I if I What I wanted to illustrate last week is that this question is hard It's complicated. It's complex because there are a lot of moving factors at the end of the day Culture history is moved by ideas If the ideas are rotten and I think there is the dominant ideas in our culture more so than ever before a Rotten not more so than ever before not because the ideas have changed ideas are pretty much the same over the last 50 Years, but they are more prevalent. They're just more embedded in the culture. They're more Around us particularly at the university level among students among professors If the ideas are rotten, then we're heading towards disaster. There's no question about that Whether we fall off a cliff or whether it's a slow agonizing decline Whether in the meantime we progress economically and then start declining or the economic progress all ends with a great depression I don't know and I don't think anybody knows and I don't think we know exactly how the decline plays out But we know a certainty we know with certainty That as long as the ideas in the culture are as bad as they are today particularly in In the you know in the realm of intellectuals Then we are heading towards decline and part of that decline is already Evident in the fact that we're not growing anywhere as fast as we should be growing given the technological advances we've got in the fact that people are just I think generally pretty miserable and unhappy and And you saw that in the selection. There's just a lot of frustration and anger and there's a lot of Fear we live in a very very fear induced culture. So at the end of the day if you think about a successful culture It's not just materially Good, it's spiritually good, which means it's happy culture. It's a it's a it's a culture with a positive sense of life It's a culture with with this idea that things are gonna get better and life is good and isn't isn't it all fun? Isn't it all exciting? And yeah, the things that don't go well in life, but overall Overall life is a positive wonderful thing and that's part of what's disappeared and living in a world where people around you Don't have that positive sense of life is not as much fun so Generally spiritually, I think life today is is less good for most of us again I think if you're gay or if you're a woman that might be different but but for most for for for white males, I guess Spirit you like today is not as good as it was Probably 50 years ago the sense of life of Americans the environment in which you live In terms of other human beings the positive ness So I didn't want to come out overly kind of polyandrish last time What I was trying to say is we've got to be realistic and we got to be realistic about what the threats are as well So there's too many people who think we're all gonna die because of the of the Islamic threat or You know Sharia law is going to be imposed in the United States or You know, I don't know the the the nihilists are gonna take over which I don't think is gonna happen I think it's gonna happen that the the authoritarians are gonna take over Or the Europe is is in next month is just gone. It just disappears and whatever So You know, yeah, we are all screwed But it takes time and in the meantime You've got to recognize the good stuff that's going on and there's good stuff going on from the expanding influence of good ideas primarily iron man's ideas to Increased economic success. We do live in the most prosperous most maturely successful period in human history To the fact that certain minority groups You know are being respected as Individuals the members of the minority groups of respected individuals for the first time maybe in human history and that's a good thing But all of that in the end of the day is going to be fleeting if we don't change the fundamental ideas that are driving the culture If we don't change if we don't take over if we don't dramatically influence the intellectual citadels from the universities to think tanks to the writers to the New York Times to Alternative media but the more intellectual alternative media as long as they are dominantly anti-reason Anti-individualism and therefore anti-capitalism Then it's going to be very very hard to have a profound long-term impact on the culture and to change it right and in that context I think the presidency of Donald Trump is Important and indicative and one of the more in my view I know some of you gonna hate this more negative signs in the culture and more negative signs in terms of what the future holds and where we had into the future and Ability to recover Well and in reverse course Because I think that Donald Trump is such a negative human being in such a negative phenomena as president That I think it's gonna make it more difficult for us to be successful So this is the the the more pessimistic you're on you're gonna get today Rather than the optimism of last week But but what I really want you to get out of this is is that this is hard that and making these cultural predictions is impossible and In terms of how it's gonna what the outcome is gonna be and and certainly Short-run what how it's gonna happen and how The bad stuff or the good stuff is gonna manifest itself that there's so many moving pieces There's so much going on that it's almost impossible to tell what is going to happen in the short run so Well, we need to really think about and analyze of The ideas and how they manifest in the culture and and what we can do about it at the end of the day And and we need to fight fight fight. We need to present the world with better ideas We because because there's no question in my mind that if we don't West the civilization ends. There's no Alternative to iron rand in in terms of saving Western civilization. There is nobody out there There is nothing out there that can actually save Western civilization except for iron rands ideas and It's an ideological battle. So we're in decline Exactly what that decline looks like is hard to tell Let's take advantage of the fact and this is this is I think an important point Let's take an advantage of the fact that we living in the best of times materially in order to wage the most aggressive battle fights war spiritually Ideologically, let's think advantage of the fact that we have Unbelievable technological assets the internet In order to wage this ideological battle and and you know, so that's what I'm calling on all of you guys to do if we want a better outcome then Civilizational decline, which is where we're heading then we have got to got to got to got to you know fight and fighting means Using the tools of the web using the technology and using your wealth Because you're rich all of you are rich From a historical perspective using your wealth by supporting the iron Institute for example Using your wealth in order to fight for a better world using your wealth in order to pay others in a in a in a you know efficient kind of Distribution of labor distribution of effort Fund others to be able to do the work in in to fight the intellectual battle. So that was a fundraising pitch Because all of you don't realize how rich you really are given that you're living in the richest most prosperous most affluent period in all of human history even if you've got relatively little you're still relatively rich so Help us fight the battle right help us fight the battle by sharing by writing by Speaking by standing up by educating yourself by studying by learning take advantage of Ironman Institute campus To study these ideas thoroughly and also support us financially support the Ironman Institute financially support My efforts financially so that we can wage this battle we can wage this war Better equipped. So anyway, all right So how do we how do we evaluate a? President's first hundred days. I mean, I think that's that's a real good question and and granted the first hundred days are Somewhat of a random estimate, right? It's it's three months plus a little bit You can't get that much done in three months It's rare that a president gets a lot done They're only you know most presidents get a lot done in the first hundred days are Usually presidents were coming out of a crisis like FDR with the Great Depression Well, not coming out of a crisis, but but in a crisis so that they have an excuse to act quickly or Fantastically astute politically like LBJ LBJ got a lot done in the first hundred days is election. He was leveraging off of a Good economy, but also off of the death of a beloved president I'm justifiably beloved but beloved right, John F. Kennedy, so Very few president actually get a lot done But what presidents do? But their agenda is going to be for the next presidency and set some principles to guide that agenda into the foreseeable future Into the world and now it looks like it's so give you some principles for What I'm going to do in the next hundred days or to give people in the case of presidents We don't really have principles to give people a sense of what the neck the rest of the presidency is Going to look like what am I gonna fight for in the in the first hundred days? and I I Did a show that you can find on the podcasting app and you find a blog talk radio a few months ago About what I believe, you know, my first hundred days would look like what I would do in the first hundred days and It it was a series of principles That would guide right my whether I could get them passed in the first hundred days probably not But I would propose I would go into the first hundred days with specific proposals on how to achieve certain things based on very specific principles So for example, one of the principles was That I would go into if I were president now. There's a there's a fantasy for you all I Would go into one of the first things I would do is go into the first hundred days with the idea of Reducing the scope of government Reduce the scope of government not just the size of government But much more importantly this scope of government so try to shrink government and I I would propose for example a massive bill Called and cronyism the bill to and cronyism which would involve You know ending all subsidies to business it would involve Reducing regulations dramatically it would involve simplifying the corporate tax rate And I will get to Donald Trump's tax proposal later on simplify Eliminating corporate taxes or at least simplifying it so that there are no exclusions no deductions No, no ways to game the system in a sense of no reason for companies to lobby because they're not getting the principle is reducing the scope of government and and Reduce and particularly when it comes to business because I think that would be something doable in a in in in the first In a hundred days you could actually present it you could put something together It wouldn't pass and certainly wouldn't pass this kind of Congress But at least you would put something out there for people to calibrate against okay This is what this guy wants to do he wants to shrink What government does right? So that would be a Domestic policy and it would be all-encompassing because that would affect taxes it would affect regulations It would affect silly affect subsidies and the relationship between government and Business it would affect all of those things Right all of those things would be impacted By something like this it would give a real comprehensive plan and vision for what you for what I wanted to do Okay, you know and there would be other things like I Wouldn't even nominate a Head for the part of education because because by nominating You know somebody's the head the Department of Education you basically institutionalizing it. I would basically You know put a bill in front of Congress very quickly to eliminate the Department of Education So I would list the departments I want to eliminate and I would put them in from a Congress and a limit You know and start the process of eliminating them and have temporary heads bureaucrats heading the agencies in the meantime and then start the unwinding process Through legislation because you have to go through legislation or to do that But in order to show how unimportant these agencies were to me, I wouldn't even appoint anybody of substance To head them up So so if you if you want to eliminate that a part of energy you don't appoint somebody Famous and well-known and of substance to the head Particularly somebody with political ambitions to head it up, right? You you you you basically Let somebody temporarily run it and and you indicate clearly that this is going to go away over time so principle I Want to reduce the scope of the federal government Dramatically right and primarily and the realm of business as I've said before I think the whole issue of of entitlements and And of welfare is something that I would do second I would first eliminate what's called Right corporate welfare the whole idea of subsidies the whole idea of special favors the whole idea of that while at the same time eliminating Regulations I would free up the business world first and I would spur massive economic growth first and then I would shift the tension to Eliminating the welfare states and here I would again have an expansive view of welfare That is not just welfare qua Food stamps, but welfare as so security and Medicare and Medicaid and the whole thing Now in the context in which we live today right You know you would have to as far as part of your early agenda to have right to have a a You know repeal of Obamacare that would have to be number one and you know one of the primary things and but you would say This is step one of a much larger agenda that is coming in the next four years which is The repeal the elimination or the phasing out I like phasing out much better of The welfare state so think of a point one is the phasing out of the regulatory state the administrative state and Point two is the phasing out of the welfare state, right? So these are principles and Then third in foreign policy, so let me give you this quickly I'm just gonna do it quickly because I don't want this discussion to get into the whole issue of foreign policy But also because I don't want the whole show to be about your arms on my First hundred days, but we I promise to talk about Trump's hundred days, but I want to give you a contrast I want to give you a contrast because you know contrast an ideal granted You know and and I know what you're gonna say you're gonna say bad. He's better than Hillary Clinton You know, okay I just want to make the case that he's not as good as you're on is as my presidency would be but I want to show principles on right So I would declare unequivocally an America first foreign policy, right? as kind of Trump has Hinted at right I would declare an America first from policy that is that the only guy to a farm policy from this day on would be the interests the individual rights of Americans The interests of America and the only interest of America is the preservation America as a political entity Is the is the preservation of the individual rights of Americans? We would not tolerate a threat any kind of threat. There's certainly no violence towards the The the lives of property of individual Americans. That's it Then I would declare that I was withdrawing over the next I would give a time over the next two to four years They withdraw all of America from the United Nations from NATO and and and from from places like South Korea and You know the the unwinding of those treaties the unwinding of those agreements You have to give people plenty of time in order to do that and I would I would take it seriously, right? Seriously do that. I would also start bringing back troops from about 145 of the 150 countries we have troops in I just noticed that we're in the deserts of Kenya Fighting some tribal war on some tribal side. Not even not even Islamic terrorism. Just just some tribal thing In Kenya, so because they are there's Islamic terrorism in Kenya, which you know, maybe you could understand fighting But this isn't even that Bring all those troops start bringing those troops home in a systematic way I would also let the Iranians know that I was withdrawing from the treaty Or the the whatever it was that we signed with them and that they were unnoticed That we were we were going to evaluate our military options for destroying their capabilities for Developing nuclear weapons and that any of active aggression by them or by any one of their proxies against Americans Anywhere in the world would be deemed an act of war which would involve massive unequivocal retaliation, I would also let the Iranian opposition know that They would get unequivocal 100% support from the United States for overthrow the theocracy in their country and if they wanted money weapons moral Support anything they wanted they would get from us if they did the dirty work of overthrowing their own regime I'd also put the Saudis on notice and tada, you know the rest of the stuff and of course I Would completely unshackle our military forces to destroy ISIS al-Qaeda and the rest of islamic totalitarian organizations out there in the world And in emboldened our allies to do the same That would be the first hundred days a lot of it would be statements a lot of it would be, you know proposed legislation I don't know if we draw from NATO and stuff probably would require legislation as well But but proposed legislation and granted in this Congress none of that would pass none of it would pass and you know I know that but you would set a conceptual framework for what you meant by freedom for what you meant by liberty for what your Presidency was fighting about All right So let's see. What has Donald Trump done over the last hundred years in the context of setting some principles setting some guidelines in order for us to understand To understand what his next What is presidency is going to look like in the future? So what what has he actually done that made a list of all the stuff in different areas that he's done and you know And I don't want this to be a list, you know healthcare He appointed price to head HHS. That's a good thing because price is generally a free market guy But then Obamacare was a complete disaster trying to repeal it and it still is and they're still playing around with it on Immigration he had a travel ban two versions the courts You know repeal them. He still talks about a wall You know, so they were resting more people so hundreds more people are being arrested maybe thousands more people And not just criminals all kinds of people Who were in violation of our immigration laws and they're being deported? There's a consequence of that no question Fewer people are crossing the border and fewer people are traveling from the Middle East into the United States So that that's kind of immigration on economic policy You know, he's talked about infrastructure plan, but we haven't got one he's talked about a tax plan We got one now. It's it's kind of good. It's not a bad tax plan We'll talk about that But he supports the import export bank and he doesn't support other things and it's kind of a mishmash He's said to reduce regulations most symbolic than real a lot of that is going to happen through the appointments He's made some of them are good And so regulations are probably gonna decline under Trump administration But he hasn't really stated anything dramatic about regulation two for one the two for one It's like a gimmicky thing, but it's kind of indicated an interest in reducing regulation But generally you haven't seen any kind of big policy proposals in economic policy other than taxes trade He hasn't been as bad in a sense of he hasn't withdrawn yet from NAFTA or gone after Chinese as much as expect Actually, he's he's kind of friendly towards the Chinese these days After he met with the Chinese leader and actually turned out to be a nice guy and their buddies now He withdrew from TPP. Okay. I think I think silly but fine tariffs on now He's putting tariffs in Canada kind of every president does that he's not any worse than others But he is talking about withdrawing from NAFTA completely renegotiating Criminal justice they're going after essentially cities They're eliminating oversight of police departments, you know Jeff Sessions is a big I'll support the police no matter what they do kind of guy on on energy policy You know some good things making coal mining easier Proposed cuts to the EPA. We'll see if they actually pass global warming, you know kind of neither, you know, they're global warming it's like We're gonna withdraw from Paris, but then we're not gonna withdraw from Paris and it may be global isn't warming and maybe maybe it is You know some of his appointments are good on that some of them are bad on that and you know unclear no clear Articulation of his agenda with regard to global warming. He did he didn't put Scott Pruitt to head the the EPA That's a good thing, but then you know, it's not It's not being clear. There hasn't been a definitive statement. There hasn't been anything really substantial And then of course there's far policy You know on the one hand, he's allowing the military to Probably to kill more Isis than previously less concerned about You know civilian casualties, but also No big fundamental change that is it's just that bombing a little bit bigger bigger bombs and stuff But no fundamental shift in terms of in terms of Of you are fighting Isis He's talked about NATO, but but hasn't but really this is for doing anything about going out of NATO He has said he wants more money from from NATO partners that the free riders on China Love eight kind of thing He said the awful things about the Chinese for a long long time It was gonna declare them currency manipulators and then he decided not to and now the Chinese is best friends They're gonna really really really work hard to control the North Koreans So they that we're all buddies now and of course on Syria He wasn't gonna intervene that he did intervene, but the intervention wasn't really significant I don't know what it all means North Korea is threatening the North Koreans the South Koreans on trade So I guess in order to reduce the threat of a nuclear option on the North Korean side He is attacking the South Koreans on issues of trade. They have a bad trade deal, but the North Koreans I don't know what his position is North Korea overall. He's tough, but then he's weak and he's tough on Israel He was gonna move the embassy, but he hasn't He was gonna allow them to do Settlements without us getting approval, but then he wasn't He's turning out to be just a conventional Republican when it comes to Israel better than Obama much better than Obama But not really a radical not really a supporter and you know You've got a bus visiting Trump on May 3rd So I'm a water bus the head of the PA coming over. So there's nothing much there either And then finally you've got a president who's attacked the media Attacked, you know distributed false news life to everybody makes up stuff constantly and Hey, and and doing stuff like that. So what do we make of that? That's it's a Complete mishmash in my view complete mishmash, and that's exactly what Trump is Trump is a complete Pragmatist he he has no principles. So what is the principle of this presidency so far? Well that there is no principles There is no principles that you know, you know one of the big promises Trump made Big promises that Trump made was that he was going to drain the swamp and what do we mean by draining the swamp? Well, I thought what he meant is get corruption out of government. I You know get get get reduced lobbying and reduce all this Pull politics and pressure politics and and and try to rein all that in now You know, I know that you cannot do that you cannot do that unless you have real principles I never expected him to drain the swamp But it was a great line, and it was a you don't get rid of the establishment types Really, you know some radical proposals and get stuff done because he was a businessman. He wasn't a politician And he was gonna efficient And he's gonna be productive and he was gonna get a lot done very very quickly and and a lot of people I think supported Trump under the idea that there was this appeal of of hey, we've got a businessman as see as President isn't this cool and and businessmen are more efficient or more productive. They're tougher They're more direct. They they get stuff done because they they count on facts. They're more rational generally And and this would be great now. Yeah, we know he doesn't share our principles He's not exactly he's far from an object of his. He's he's not a free market guy But at least we'll have this the sense that there's a real business leader efficacy and Behind everything that gets done in the White House and won't that be cool and won't that be exciting and won't that increase? The visibility of business in American life. I want that increase of respect Americans have for business. Da da da da da So what what would we say in in in those respects? characterizes the first hundred days of of a Trump I Mean I would say what characterizes them is unbelievable incompetence Nothing really getting done a leader a Leader who resorts to lying Regularly in order to try to shape public opinion in his views, right? So he lies he makes stuff up Right, or he exaggerates, you know, there's some truth to something or he tends to say something completely arbitrary And then go find the evidence to it and then and then claim he never said the original thing at all But that he said something different You know, he just he makes stuff up He's the kind of CEO That after this first hundred days, I think most board of directors was questioned Whether they made a good decision by appointing him because nothing has been achieved Let me say that again Nothing zero nada has been achieved now. You can point a few little things. All right, his energy policy is not bad So we freed up some of the production of carbon fuels a little bit here and there Nothing really dramatic because no bills are really past Congress, but it's through executive orders He's made it a little bit easier Little bit easier to do some stuff But really That's pretty much it has he moved us to what making America great again No, I mean, there's that yet again. There's also other little things I you know, somebody just mentioned on the chat, you know, the FCC is is moving away from that neutrality. That's good That's good. So they're gonna be appointments that he made and I don't think even he made right People in his administration makes so what happens is they sweep into Congress and they look for the intellectuals Or they look for people who can run these agencies and the people can run these agencies are often very good people The people on the right who are pretty good okay, yeah, but But that's that doesn't that helps us in the short run It's not bad and the next guy comes in the FCC won't pose that neutrality again And you know, the question is long-term Is it gonna change anything of substance and I can't think of a single thing that the president has done that's good in that sense, but more importantly because Trump represents Anti-conceptual he can't talk in really kind of coherent complete sentences Now when he's doing an extra periencise he can't he's not a thinker He's not a communicator of other than of emotion Even the two for one is two for one way he wants to reduce regulation. It sounds good It's such a silly way to get about to go about doing it. It's such a silly way un-principled Unguided way of doing it. Yeah, let's get rid of two regulations in the 1880s and adopt one regulation that changes All everybody's lives. I mean It doesn't make any sense. It's not a numbers game. It's not about the number of regulations, although That can't have relevance to bite the scope of the regulations about what they actually do The harm the damage that what it is that they're regulating how they're regulating and there's no principle Two for one is not a principle It's a silliness so What Trump is doing has been doing for the last hundred years is living up to everything we believed a Trump tendency would be like it's a bunch of You know short-term little bursts of energy focused in different directions He's not drained the swamp. We brought the swamp right into his administration with a number of his appointments There's no Radical shift in government in order to reduce its scope or to do anything as far as I can tell it's complete inconsistency America first is no America first year. I Was was the Syria bombing? 59 cruise missiles into a runway and destroying a few Syrian planes have anything to do with American first What American interest was served? What interest period of anybody's was served by doing that? Nothing A lot of a lot of talking Not a lot of action any front in terms of font policy I mean, he's not getting tough with NATO. He's not getting tough with the Koreans. Not the north or the south Again, there's a lot of talk, but but no substance nothing Substantive interesting, you know on farm policy there's He's done nothing what it's trumped on. I mean, I'm I'm eager for some somebody to actually say Yeah, they they dropped the biggest bomb in history other than nuclear bomb on this Cape complex in In Afghanistan that ISIS inhabits good for them, you know the only question is why wasn't it done sooner? And why was the only one bomb dropped? Why didn't they bomb drop like five of them and finish the whole thing? Instead of dropping a bomb and then special forces still having to go in there Just just flatten that mountain turn that mountain into a rubble However, many bombs that take so that these guys You know all dead And and anyway I don't want to get into how to fight wars and and the whole Disaster this is Afghanistan now and the whole disaster is in the middle east now All the consequence of george w bush's weakness reinforced by by obama We thought this was going to be change There's no change farm policy is exact the same as it was Under george w bush a little bit marginally better Maybe then under obama no principles nothing guiding it going in all kinds of directions You know and then of course the constant threats about trade But without the balls to actually do anything about it right get out of NAFTA if you believe that But the constant intimidation and threats and name calling now, it's the canadiens the canadiens are bad guys somehow because of why? because some pressure group got to trump and said hey We are suffering because the canadiens have cheaper imports or have raised tariffs or some companies That's the definition of the above on lumber. We need your help Oh I like you guys you guys are kind of fun. Okay. I'll help you guys I'm not going to help those other guys because I don't like them that much but me trump. I like these guys I like the milk guys the milk a wisconsin milk that has to be a winner plus wisconsin Then I win wisconsin. Yeah, I guess I won wisconsin by small margin. Maybe if I give them Milk subsidies I'll win more bigger margin next time All right, who else wants subsidies? All right line up. Which state? You know, you know that one's too too too, uh, blue state, uh, you know, it's too blue No point in giving those guys subsidies Wait, no principle nothing nothing a complete loser So now we get subsidies on milk and on wood on wood this is this is trump's Trade strategy so completely. I mean he made such a big deal out of trade Then okay a principle would be I'm anti-trade I'm gonna do everything in my power as president to make america self-sufficient I You know, in other words, I'm an advocate of of mocha to listen But but but he doesn't even have to say that so, you know, here's 30% trade barriers on china and on japan And whatever, you know, come on stand for something You know, I'm I'm I'm anti-trade. I think trade's awful I think trade's gonna lower the standard of living or working class americans So I am gonna put Impose trade barriers on milk and wood from canada and then If you look at his attack on south korea recently just yesterday, I think attack on south korea on on There's too much free trade with south korea And they're they're subsidizing their own interest these two. I mean, what a bunch of ignorance About trade and I've talked about this before so I don't want to I don't want to bore you with it Anyway, he didn't trade this watch. He didn't drain the swamp He's kind of good at energy maybe for now. He's kind of going to the internet maybe for now Okay, we'll get to the text finally in a minute Um What about this no this this notion of And I hear this a lot right and inside I was in miami doing a presentation And and I got I got really, you know, I got some people really pissed off at me because of this trump thing isn't trump A reflection of this amazing self-esteem And isn't trump isn't a consequence for the first time we've got a president standing up there saying America first and projecting this confidence and self-esteem in america and the importance of america And yeah, he gets it wrong is america first is about trade and building a wall But shouldn't that it shouldn't we just ignore that and just focus on the fact that he has a guy with kind of an american sense of life Now I don't know how to answer that because I find that so country so wrong So not what I see when I see trump at all I see Well, I won't actually say what I see, but you know, I an entertainer who's uh, who's who's gonna say what he thinks Will get him your love and your votes What does he mean by america first? How does he hold that he doesn't know what america is to him? It's just a geographic space And what does it mean to place it first? Well, he tells us when he actually sees the images of children dying in syria Then suddenly It's appropriate for us to intervene and not put america first because their children dying and altruism beats america I mean altruism is more important to him than america Because it was america first until he saw the images and then it wasn't so what does that even mean when he says america first? It means nothing and and when people look at that and let's say they buy into the pseudo Self-esteem because it really is pseudo because somebody with that thinner skin does not have self-esteem Getting angry a journalist getting angry at the media getting angry at his opponents calling people ugly Offending people lashing out on people You know tweeting at 3 a.m. About supermodels. That is not self-esteem That is pseudo self-esteem, but but imagine that some people say oh, there's a self interested business leader with self-esteem and then he does these stupid things That can't help us that can only hurt us And is he running government like a businessman would run government? Well, I don't know what that is because I think businessmen and politicians are two very separate categories And being a good businessman has nothing to do with being a good Politician and being good at government But is he running the government in a way that you would say wow? I want that business to run my my company No, I mean you would never hire this guy to run your business based on his first hundred days in government. It's a mess You know how many Positions, I mean I think he has more unfilled positions than any president at this point in modern history I mean nothing about this presidency is efficient or productive in in the sense that you would expect of of a businessman So America first means nothing And therefore when people hear America first from me in the future when I'm running for president I'm kidding when you know when in a somebody of substance run for president Then I'm gonna take it seriously He under so to the extent that he sometimes says says That he sometimes says something good that we can relate to like America first He undercuts it by his actions and therefore destroys the concept for us. We have to come up with a new name Make America great again. Really. What does it mean again? The whole notion of America here both in America first and in America great again Is of an ethno-nationalistic state Keep those brown people out Now he doesn't say that and he never said that and maybe he doesn't even think that in that way But that's what he's doing That's what Animate Animates his actions So America first and America great again is America qua nationalism qua collectivism qua everything we're against qua everything we hate qua everything I hate I I shouldn't talk for you guys So it might be trump is an unmitigated disaster in his first hundred days in spite of the relatively good tax plan He just put together right which won't pass anyway. So it's irrelevant He is going to he's basically gutted the republican party Because what does the republican party do now? So he's emboldened the nationalist Wing of the republican party the nationalist Collectivistic wing of the republican party that is obsessed with immigration and hate trade That has now become a much stronger much more emboldened Much more aggressive wing of the republican party. I think he's emboldened The evangelicals who tend to be Nationalists as well because mysticism of Whether it relates to god or whether it relates to america as a as a as a metaphysical entity Is is the same type of mysticism? I think the real free market people within the republican party are running for the hills And and and you know, what what do they get? What what did that going to be? What's what's going to happen with that? But he's done he's done much worse to the presidency. He lies He invents stuff right this this thing about ms-13 Right that the responsible for motives And and this is a horrible gang a really scary gang That that was created from Um, you know, I think it was El Salvadorian immigrants or or central american immigrants into the united states Really going back to the 1980s when Ronald Reagan Brought them here during the time when the communists were trying to take over central america and have turned into these violent horrible gangs And you know just but but trump makes stuff up like this. This is like all obama's fault somehow Which is completely out of nonsense and turns facts into Just games of of of uh, which political party you're in And of course now i'm not saying the left doesn't do this of course the left does this But if everybody now is doing it and doing it at the extreme that trump does where he makes stuff up lies about I think the future is politically because Disarray completely You know, uh, a complete disarray after four years of trump Maybe even after eight years of trump, especially even after four years of trump, which means that the left is going to be stronger more emboldened more nihilistic And it's going to be able to portray the right as as these these crazy nationalists And of course the fact that trump is an unprincipled um pragmatist anti-conceptual You know really Concrete bound mentality. I really have a you know, my opinion of trump was low before he was elected It's just getting lower every single day if that's possible right now. I know some of you think he's a savior So if that's what the republicans elect, what's the future of the republican party? Where does it go? And and and isn't this just getting emboldened the worst elements on the so-called right the most collectivistic elements on the so-called right Who maybe actually stand for principles but principles that we would be horrified in in lennon pickups terms Won't disemboldened the m2s to say look, we tried the businessman pragmatic approach Here's some principles and wanted emboldened the nutty crazy completely nihilistic Left I see nothing positive coming from a trump president. He really nothing positive He's not gonna drain the swamp. He showed us that he's brought the swamp right in he's embraced the swamp. He's part of the swamp His farm policy shows no indication of being any better than any of his predecessors It's gonna be as altruistic as unprincipled as shoot from the hip Maybe at the margins a little tougher His economic policies You know, he has no leadership capabilities and we saw that with obama care I mean, he should have come out swinging after the election around obama care Forced his republican colleagues to adopt something That really repealed obama care Pounded at them. I mean he won the presidency He has particularly in the first hundred days Huge political capital put that political capital go to congress go to the senate Slap those senators and congressmen around get a deal done Find a couple of democrats From red states who where they hate obama care and get them to support it Fight fight fight fight for something you believe in but he doesn't believe in anything. She can't fight I mean, I understand the politics of obama care. It's hard. There's these moderates and the republican party and then there's the senate We need 60 votes but show some energy Around changing that We're talking about otherwise don't become Which is not a bad tax plan, right? I mean, let's let's talk. So let me just finish that point, right? so To me the failure of obama care the repeal of obama care is emblematic of everything wrong with trump He's he in a sense. He's lazy. He sat back. He didn't do anything Then when he came to his desk and it didn't have enough votes. He made a few phone calls didn't work. He gave up He gave up Right The fact that he doesn't care about spending. He's actually said I don't care about the Budget deficit anymore. I'm gonna have an infrastructure plan and I'm gonna pass this tax plan It's gonna generate fewer revenues. He doesn't care about spending fine. Now. Remember, this is a businessman who lives on debt Companies go bankrupt no big deal because That's the name of the game. He leverages up Can't make enough cash flow in order to pay back his debt. He falls for bankruptcy. You can't do that to a country You shouldn't do that to a country So he's not concerned about cutting expense expenses cutting government spending Indeed he wants to increase it with infrastructure. So But again, Obamacare is unbelievably emblematic of lack of any principle and then lack of willingness to fight for Anything including promises explosive promises he made And then in the end of the day, Syria is incredibly indicative of the role of altruism in his administration and the fact that Pictures of dying kids are gonna are gonna be what determines You know foreign policy in this administration. By the way, Peter Schwartz has an op-ed in the Huffington Post I encourage you to look at it. Look it up and read it about the whole Syria thing all right Let's quickly talk about uh, Trump's tax plan and then I want to go to uh to the pope The pope and bright bod So tax plan really involves Lowering corporate taxes on profits from 35 to 15 percent now. We don't have a lot of detail About the kind of exclusions and all the stuff you can deduct from your taxes at that rate But but hopefully that involves something very simple now. We all know The corporate taxes of all the taxes corporate taxes should be zero Okay, but that's not gonna happen. So 15 percent good rate. I mean that's about as good as you're gonna get So I'm all for that It's a good start Lowest capital gain taxes from 23.8 to 20. That's kind of weird. Why not lower them to 15 as well? But okay, it's a lowering. I'm for lowering period and then Taking five different individual tax categories to three 10 25 35 Increasing the individual deduction the standard deduction he doubles it which I guess is politically really good because it gets the middle class on his side Making the estate tax and the alternative minimum tax zero Yeah, good luck having that passed, but that would be great particularly in my case the alternative minimum tax I want that one gone. That's a disaster But then also making it So that you can only exclude mortgages and charity now I would get rid of both those exclusions Because it's social engineering. It's trying to tell you that yeah, you know Charity is good and other an investment is not or that What are you on mortgage is the right way to spend your money, you know Where house is a good asset other assets are not so good mortgage is a good debt other debt is not so good all of that is BS so I would rather none of that existed but simplifying is better than complexity. I'm all for that, right? Um So I think in many respects all of that is good, but you know, it's not principled enough It's not it's not radical enough But it is good and and if you passed It would definitely spur economic growth It is a reduction of taxing capital, which is what which is what this does Is a good thing generally taxing people less Is a good thing taxing corporations less even though corporate taxes it just sells taxes on the rest of us And employment taxes is good because it raises the standard of living of of americans through reduction in prices And then an increase in wages So all of this is good for growth. All of this is a good thing And it's not a bad move politically because it doubles the standard deduction It does a lot of things that could get some people motivated around it But the real question is not whether a president has proposed something that's good And by the way the the best thing about it is it gets rid of the stupid ridiculous proposal by republicans To have this tax on imports Because they want revenue neutrality and therefore they want to raise taxes on imports in order to give these other tax reductions That that is such a horrible idea So yeah, so overall You know, I would score this a b-plus. It's it's really not bad as a tax policy But a is it going to get passed As as trump's own any sign that he's going to fight for this right No, I mean none of that none of none of the above So, you know, I don't know what it's worth because I just don't Yeah, it's a nice plan. All right. It's kind of a classical republican plan. There's nothing trumpy about this plan There's nothing uniquely trump about it right Um, by the way, another big failure of the first hundred days. I have to mention this. It's a failure of congress but remember House is republican the senate is republican and the white house is republican and they cannot get a temporary spending bill Passed by congress. They had to pass a one week extension It's just mind-boggling. Where is the leadership? Where is trump's leadership? I mean There is no republican party now. It's just the republican party is basically broken up into a bunch of little A little pressure groups each one with their own agenda And no leaders who could coalesce them around Anything so the republican party is basically useless and dissolved 90 and there was never that useful to begin with But now it's completely useless They can't even get this simple budget proposal passed so that the government doesn't shut down And how if you're hearing frustration in my voice It's frustration not only with republicans and this president But with anybody and I know there are a lot of you out there who thinks this guy's good And good stuff is happening when when All right, we got a call Let's see. Who's this? Hi. You're new on book show. Who's this? How you're on this sander from new york? Hey, and where's it going? Good, um, i'm glad i'm calling you at your exasperated point because um It kind of fits into what I wanted to say You know, I think as we as we monitor and view these the political developments it It opens up an opportunity for objectivists in the following way I think what we're seeing is a coarsening of the Discourse yep in the culture. Yep. Um, I think on the fringes. There is a lot of nastiness cynicism There's people like, you know, somebody I respect Ben Shapiro who comes to mind where I respect his arguments And yet if I follow him on twitter, most of his tweets are anti-left. Yes, you know, they're just kind of In they're they're conveying disgust for the left. So you have this very Very toxic communication and discourse going on between people and i'm afraid that For objectivists, you know We have to distinguish between, you know, intellectuals like yourselves who are doing this and it takes a lot of skill And it takes a lot of knowledge about the political and the economic arguments and all that And everyday objectivists like myself. Yep, and not to try to confuse the two You know, I was thinking If I you know talk to a co-worker of mine about minimum wage if I started launching into You know, a rational argument about minimum wage, it would do nothing But what would do More to actually further rationality in the culture is if I am Embodying a person if I really am the egoist that I claim that I am yes, and I am benevolent I am I am conveying benevolence to people which I try to do if I'm enjoying my work If I'm passionate if I have interests outside of politics and economics, which really are More like painful these days to concentrate on than enjoyable, you know, if that's my life Uh, these kind of negative things and that's what I'm conveying to other people We are not selling objectivism that I know I I agree with you completely I agree completely the best way to promote objectivism is to live it live it positively Live it successfully and when you do get into discussion with your co-workers Don't start with minimum wage because it's it's it's a You come out, you know, they they just perceptually view you then as nasty and as negative and so on And and this is don't be a conservative in the sense of just criticizing life The thing to talk about is the positive the idea of living for your own happiness The idea of your life belongs to you and what that implies The idea that there is such a thing as an objective morality out there Even if you can't completely define and explain it in great detail But just the idea that there is that you live by an objective reality The and and they can see it and they can see its success So I think morality is our strong point not economics because economics nobody cares about economics at the end of the day What they care about is morality and it's also morality is about individual human life You have a lousy morality. You'll have a lousy life. You have a good morality. You have a chance at a good life So I think most of your discussions out there as individuals should be focused and centered Around the moral case for happiness around the moral case for living a good life And the best argument you can make for that is by living it is by living a great life Yes, well, I that's what I really want to highlight is that a lot of the change that can be done from regular people Is through just other Just living it and other people perceiving it and then if they perceive it If they perceive that you are an integrated person Who was happy who is happy and who is An egoist somebody who is clearly, you know, they're not happy because they're Doing for other people they're doing for themselves and in doing for themselves They feel benevolent towards other people But one is the effect of the other And if if if your neighbors and if your co-workers and if your family sees that you are doing that They will first, you know, many of them might say all of them. They will mimic you They will inquire with you about what you're doing They will do all, you know, that's how you can serve as an example To make the the culture more rational to make it more virtuous. Absolutely. And I'm afraid that I'm taking the um Leonard Peacoff course on rationalism right now Yeah on the iron rain campus and I'm afraid that there is still, you know, it was a monster problem for me And I'm still working my way out of it, but I think I'm you know, I'm defeating it But I think that it's a bigger problem than even a lot of objectives realized that they are still floating In what the purpose of the philosophy is which is not being didactic with other people It's not even making Philosophical arguments to other people it is for your own life To feel happy to pursue your own happiness and to actually feel that happiness To not just do it say like well, I can Out of a sense of duty to the objectivism I know absolutely and I encourage everybody listening to go listen to this course. It's on campus.inran.org and it's um It's called understanding objectivism and in the section you're talking about is a section on rationalism Wait, which I think is a problem for almost every objectivist And it certainly is a problem for those of us who read inran when we're young and get all excited and enthusiastic And the ideas because inran is a philosopher who ideas are deep They relate to one's own individual life and how to live it But at age 18 when you read the book you don't have the tools to fully understand that to grab and to integrate it So what you focus on is a few of the elements which you hold In a floating way as you said a floating without real connection to reality And then you go out as a crusader to convince the world And that does you damage because it doesn't allow you to fully integrate those ideas and fully embrace The purpose of objectivism which to which is to be the philosophy for life on this earth To to to maximize your flourishing on this earth to be happy to experience happiness And and it's and it also Alienates other people because they see you as this crusading rationalist detached from reality Who who is angry all the time and so many objectivists I know are angry and I know I come across on the show sometimes is angry, but people know me And and they know that i'm not fundamentally that way. It's just the topics make me angry, but i'm not an angry person So you're you're absolutely right in in that The focus for those of us who want to change the world has to be in our own lives on living them On maximizing them and then when we do present ideas to the To other people the primary should be the positive and if you want to do it in economics Even in economics talk about how wonderful freedom is And how much prosperity it has brought mankind talk about silicon valley talk about the decline of poverty around the world because of freedom rather than focusing on something relatively small with big significance granted like minimum wage where you come across as angry As anti-poor and as as technical economically Where they're not going to get it they're not going to accept it from you until they get the bigger more important concept So I agree with you completely andrew and I think it's a it's a crucial point And and don't obsess about politics because politics at the end of the day while they have an impact on your life You have no con you have no control over politics. You have no impact on politics So I wonder if you agree that If if if I say to somebody, what are you passionate about and the only thing they can tell me is philosophy economics You know politics. Yeah. Yeah I'm I'm a little wary because I'm saying to myself is this person actually pursuing interest in the world What about art? What about music? What about sports? Absolutely. What about hobbies? By the way, it's Celtics one last night. I'm happy You know absolutely and and and look unless you're professional intellectual unless look some people their career is philosophy And then that's what they care about and some people their career is political analysis And that's what they care about but but as a as a as a You know just an objectivist Philosophy is a tool Politics is something you need to be aware of because it impacts your life And you need for example, I would caution people not to be adamant supporters of trump because it'll hurt you long run But that doesn't mean you have to obsess either negatively or positively about him. Just be aware of the dangers Don't support things that will hurt you and be aware of how you're projecting your own vision to other people because You could do the the cause damage by being overly supportive of donald trump overly supportive of any politician today Ted Cruz no matter whoever it happens to be you can't be overly supportive of any politician in the world We live in today. It makes you look really really bad because they're all bad You but you're right, you know, what about music? What about movies? What about you know, do you have a sculpture in your home or if you can't afford one Do you go to museums when you travel? Do you try to experience life? What's your sex life like? What's your love life like? What is you know, all of that is a huge one. What's that? Yeah, that's a huge one one. I'm you know, I haven't talked much about but maybe one of these days You know, yeah, it's huge. What do you have friends? Why do you have friends? Who are these friends? Do you have friends because They're just the places for you to bitch and complain or do you have friends because you really share values and you really Enjoy being around them and you really have fun with them all of these questions Are crucial to being a human being and to into integrating the philosophy And by the way, one of the best ways I think to integrate the philosophy Is to be around other people who want to integrate the philosophy too So find good objectives friends who are also on this quest to be happy And and enjoy movies with them and enjoy discussions with them and yeah talk about politics as well But do it in the framework of trying to everybody's trying to get a better grasp on these ideas So that not to convince the other person so that they can live a better life for themselves And those are incredible friendships if you can find them those are those are terrific ways The last thing that I kind of want to move on to the Pope if I if I could absolutely In the world is the essence of benevolence. I think if you get grounded too much In all of these negative things in politics, which are true and it's not about wiping them under the rug It's about acknowledging them, but not letting them rule your life and keeping the perspective that you know You're curious about the world because the world is awesome All right, that's what we want. I think to convey to to the rest of of the pope Absolutely, and you've just screwed up my entire show. Thank you, Andrew because I can't talk about the pope after that it's too negative and too depressing and You know, I'll talk about him in another show. I I think the last point you made is is really really crucial So let me talk about that and we'll get to the pope next time. Uh, this always happens, right? I always promise to talk about something and then it gets it gets devolved Because I I think this is a really interesting and crucial point And I and I find I find it frustrating. You're not just among Objectives generally but among objectivist intellectuals as well um I find that I have a difficulty Figuring out which book to read What area to investigate? What to do with my time because there's so much that's interesting Life out there is really really fun. It's really interesting. There's so many topics I'd love to talk about you know And and and it's always not an issue of oh, I don't have anything to talk about although I complain about that as well sometimes But it really is there's so many interesting cool things I could be doing There's so many interesting cool things I could be thinking about there's so many interesting cool things I could be talking about how do I never down? How do I figure out what I actually want to do? And and that curiosity that wanting to read another book that wanting to You know and wanting to understand the enemy you know People people who who are bad people Who have bad ideas? Let's say no bad people bad ideas um Are still worth reading because sometimes what they say is interesting and to understand why they're wrong is interesting Right 99.999 of the population on the planet is wrong About the most important questions in life Aren't you curious? Why don't you want to understand both psychologically and philosophically in every other aspect? Why and that means It's You know, you got to you got to delve into it and find it interesting. So, okay So I will talk about the pope you've convinced me Because I find this interesting right so so I read the bright bought story about the pope criticizing libertarians And then I found it really really hard to actually find the pope's um discussion Because nobody actually reads the stuff. They just they just they want a news bike But I find This pope really interesting because this pope is very philosophical and now he's he's very he's very philosophical from a from a Catholic altruistic collectivistic And mox's perspective. He kind of integrates all those aspects Into the pope. So I I find the pope kind of Kind of interesting because he's the enemy, but he's not You know, I don't find trump interesting I find trump just frustrating I have to talk about trump. I have to think about trump. I have to look at you. I just find it fast The pope is evil, right? But His evil is interesting Right So He talks the language of intellectuals. So it's almost like reading some leftist things. So first The the part about libertarianism is only in the kind of towards the end of the piece and it's two paragraphs among many And this is a message To to participants in the plenary session of the pun Typical academy of social sciences is an academy of social sciences Meeting this this weekend under the auspices of the pope And he is giving this this talk and and it's published. You can get it from The office of the holy sea And they've released they've released this publication and so it's cool. It's cool to just read it Um But at the end of the day The whole address here is about the importance the significance of Two things in the relationship primarily the primary thing is what he's calling fraternity He talks about fraternity as the governing principle of economic order What does he mean by fraternity? He means this idea of of our brotherhood of all brothers And we must treat everybody as our brother. So this is deep altruism. This is Deep collectivism, right? um So he wants he wants fraternity in economics And he says it's not enough to have solidarity and so and he says it's not enough to have forced redistribution He says yeah, you got to do that but but it's forced And people feel like well, you know, my taxes were taken and My money was redistributed or we have a minimum wage or so it's it's enough So it's enough And he says that's not enough. That's not real that you're getting off too easy What you need is to feel like every suffering even being on the planet is your brother and you have to have the The the the the more responsibility for him like he was if he was your brother. So this is all about Social justice In the social justice warrior perspective on the left social justice from the catholic perspective If you're catholic, it's very philosophical Um, you know, and I don't have time to go over the whole thing. He talks about uh, he talks about The the fact that we've got inequalities Wars of dominance climate change economic inequalities that are forced migration And and new slavery and all these things. So what we need is a new society a society of fraternity You know and and It's not about giving in order to have it's not about giving out of a sense of duty. He says that's that's that's not good enough Uh, and he says neither the liberal individualistic vision of the world in which everything or almost everything is an exchange Nor the state-centric vision of society Where the state forces you to redistribute or good You have to want to live under communism. You have to embrace it You have to view all these other human beings as your brothers and you have to embrace them and live with them And share with them not out of a sense of duty, but out of a sense of love I mean, this is real socialism. This is real Christianity um and That this is the only way human beings can really develop and this is the only conception of real freedom And he talks about freedom and what is freedom? And it's not just freedom from coercion And he talks about work As as freedom he talks about the importance of working in that sense. I agreed with him He says some stuff that's true about the importance of work to one's spirit to oneself self-esteem He doesn't use that term But so but then he says then then people have in a sense He says a right is too cheap. They have They they have to be able to do the work they love they want Whether they're capable or not. He doesn't say that but that's what's implication They have to be able to do work that's spiritually fulfilling for them If they if it's not then you have to provide them with different work Again, it's a brotherhood. We're all in this together. Hey, brother What kind of work would make you fulfilled? Oh, we have too many of those doesn't matter. We'll add you to the core We don't need that work. Oh, it doesn't matter. You get to do it because you're part of it And in that context in the car he talks about justice of labor and he talks about in the context of This voluntary society in the context of we are all a brother's keeper in the context of we are one big brotherhood of humanity That's the context in which he lashes out against libertarian individualism And he says we've got this invasion At the high levels of the culture and education at universities and in schools of libertarian individualism Imagine the surprise of libertarians to discover that they have invaded our universities and they are everywhere and they are real risk Now I'm just going to say this. I don't have time to really take it But it's not an accident that bright broad is the only one who picked up on this and makes this a big deal Because this is bright broad's position He is reflecting bright but he is reflecting steve bannon. If you read steve bannon's Talk from about a year or two years ago. I think it's also at the vatican around these kind of issues He talks about the fact that iron ran type individualism Free market capitalism is bad and it's bad for the same reason the pope is articulating here Is steve bannon is for capitalism of based on the judo christian tradition for for A brotherhood of capitalism. I don't know what it would be But but this is steve bannon's agenda It's it's it's not in conflict with the pope that much And and again, this you have to understand in terms of the people in the background pushing this kind of stuff So he says uh, you know This libertarian individualism is horrible because it exalts the selfish ideal Right that deceptively deceptively proposes A beautiful life. This goes back to andrew's comments. We should be living a beautiful life That's I like that term that the pope has introduced a beautiful life Not just a good life. Not just a happy life a beautiful life. I love that. That's great. Anyway, he condemns that that's how that's a That's a selfish idea um You know and he says Libertarians today Preaches that to establish freedom and individual responsibility. It is necessary to resort to the idea of self causation What else is there but self causation? So he's rejecting kind of Us as a cause the individual is a cause free will Because this individual libertarian individualism. He says denies the validity of the common good. Yes, it does Because of the one in the one-handed supposes that the very idea of common implies Constrictions of at least some individuals. It's exactly an entrance point Right that the only way to establish your common is to deny the minority, which is the individual and the other that the notion of good Deprives freedom of its essence now. That's very libertarian, but not objectivist right so good We uphold as an individualistic thing good is the good for the individual But many libertarians who deny morality who don't want to deal with morality Good indeed is because they complete subjectivists complete subjectivists They view the good i.e. morality as indeed Constraining their freedom. So that's actually pretty smart of the pope. He's got something there in terms of his critique of broader libertarians not not objective, right? So he says You don't have a right to expand expand your power your wealth whatever And he quotes even at the expense of the exclusion and marginalization of the most vulnerable Vulnerable majority. So first of all he assumes that the vulnerable are the majority when they're not but he also says at the expense of the exclusion and marginalization Not at the expense of a zero sum world where you're taking stuff from them But the marginalization exclusion they don't participate in what you're doing Again very clever But this is all kind of You know socialist altruism collectivism Hi, and he says the essence of created freedom The essence of creative freedom note the created freedom is bonds of relations family and interpersonal Right, and he says libertarians want to reject all this and excluded with excluded and marginalized. That's that's what that's what freedom is about With the common good and finally with god So freedom comes around from The bonds or relations we have with family with other people with them and particularly the marginalized With the common good and with god. That's what freedom is for him. Now. Wow. That's this is pretty philosophical Now I know I've got two calls in I'm going to take those calls if they're gonna if you're really quick Because otherwise I don't have time But let me let me just pull up if I can find it. Where did I put it? I know it's here Um Let me put up reason.com's criticism of the pope, right? So first I say look this pope doesn't understand economics Pooh, we know he doesn't understand economics. He just shut up our big economics stop talking about libertarians because you don't know economics But nothing the pope said had anything to do with economics and had anything to do with economic knowledge What the pope is talking about is philosophy He's talking about morality And politics and morality is his domain morality is the domain in which he is supposed to be infallible according to catholics So This article in reason magazine is dismissing him because ah he's just you know He just doesn't understand economics and he doesn't get it And then it goes on to say well, but of course we libertarians care about the common good Indeed libertarianism is the way to achieve the common good and then she writes The pope might for instance be taken aback to discover that many libertarians hold beliefs that transcend The an iron randian glorification of selfishness Yeah, so throw iron rand out of the bus, you know to save yourself and your catholicism and or You know that that what we care about is interpersonal relations We care deeply about the common good. This is what she writes, right? um Oh kia says and and then he and then she says most of all we would likely be startled to he would likely be startled to find that Far from thinking quote only the individual decides what is good and what is evil unquote few libertarians are moral relativists parentheses except for the objectivists, of course Or am I getting that wrong close parentheses? So we are the moral relativists. Why because we don't believe in god I did a show on that a little while ago, right? So this is the libertarian defense against the pope. He doesn't understand economics But he's not talking about economics. Oh when he talks about ethics We agree with him We just think the way to really live your ethics is with libertarian ideas to write economics I mean how frustrating and then of course they throw on random to the bus and they completely misrepresent us and so on so That's reason.com for you It's called on the invasion of libertarianism pope Francis ignorance is showing by stephanie slade Oh my god, and she admits to being a catholic and she's trying to I guess defend the pope Against his own economic ignorance as if that is the problem. It's really nuts So really nuts All right, I'm gonna take these calls because I hate leaving them behind here. All right. Hi, you're in the run book show. Who's this? Good afternoon, dr. Booker scowler's owners from Delaware. Skyler really quickly because I like have 60 seconds Yes, sir. What is it behind pope franke's smile? He seems to smile a lot. What is it behind that smirk? Well, it's a smoke. It's a sense of superiority It's a sense of I know you don't and it's a sudden it's a suddenly a sense of elitism You know, I care about the poor but not really You know, and he doesn't really care about the poor. Of course if he cared about the poor, he'd be a capitalist What he cares about is catholic doctrine. What he cares about is about some aspects of catholic doctrine to the line with um with Catholicism the altruism and the collectivism that's this fraternity That's what he cares about the sacrifice of the individual for the group and the emphasis on on the group. Thanks skyler All right, somebody mentioned in the chat. It's like else with tui's smile, and I think that's right How are you on the run book show? Who's this? Oh, hi steward. Hey steward 20 seconds quickly I want to ask you if you've seen johann norberg's documentary about new zealand and how it was a socialist party that Miraculously faced reality faced that they were on fiscal cliff Which topics on me with 20 seconds left steward? So you're gonna have to come back to that in the future show, all right But I've not seen the documentary I I've not seen the documentary but I do know But I do know about about the uh, the what happened in new zealand and how it was the left the completely reformed new zealand And it's not new zealand's not the only place where that's happened But we'll talk about that in the future show. All right Uh, you've been listening uh to the run book show Let me let me give you a TV show recommendation from netflix um, and let me let me just see Let me give you a um, and I can't remember if I've given you this recommendation a lot um Yeah, there it is. Okay, so it's a show now you have to you're gonna have to read Subtitles so hopefully you're willing to tolerate subtitles, but it's a show called murley m e r l i And it's in not spanish, not french, not italian, but catalan The language spoken in barcelona And it's about a philosophy teacher at this high school Right now every show title is a name of a different philosopher and It's it's actually quite You know interesting now. He's a lefty and it's got a lot of leftist bs in it And and his understanding of some of these philosophers is questionable, but it's fun And it's interesting and uh, and it's definitely worth watching. It's on netflix. So if you got netflix, it's free It's got season one as 13 episodes. There's already a season two, but netflix doesn't carrying it yet It's called m e r l i Every show is a different and it's like it's about teenagers. It's about um High school kids and and their teachers. So it's a little juvenile in that sense and it deals with issues Uh surrounding uh the teen years But I I find it very entertaining and interesting and it's always kind of interesting challenging to think about How is the particular philosopher that they chose for the particular show? How does that integrate throughout the show? How does they have understanding of that philosopher? integrate throughout the show So if you're willing not to be too critical of some of the distortions of the philosophies and if you're willing to Accept the fact that once in a while, that'll be quite lefty And you're willing to read subtitles I encourage you to watch the show. All right Thanks everybody Have enjoyed the rest of your weekend. I've got one more show left today. It'll be streaming on facebook live And on iHeart radio and that'll be my final Last ever You run book show on amp 560 that show is ending. It has been Um eliminated so uh tune into the last show And I'll explain more All right. Have a great weekend