Doug Casey on Brett Kavanaugh

Via Casey Research

Justin’s note: Today, Casey Research founder Doug Casey and I discuss the biggest story in America right now.

I’m of course talking about the Brett Kavanaugh scandal. Now, I realize you might be sick of hearing about this. But I guarantee you haven’t heard anyone speak as unapologetically on this topic as you’re about to…

Justin: Doug, what do you make of the media circus surrounding Kavanaugh?

Doug: Disgusting and degrading. First of all, nobody knows who’s lying. My gut feeling? Christine Ford is either lying or deluded. The other accusers are shameless publicity seekers, at best.

How can any reasonable person even dream of bringing up what may or may not have happened at an alcohol-fueled party 36 years ago? The supposed witnesses can provide zero relevant corroboration. Her testimony, outside discussions and records, were inconsistent. Her sham fear of flying says she had serious second thoughts. Her timing in making the accusation at the last minute is highly suspicious. Especially when she doesn’t remember who invited her, where the party was, when it was, how she got there, how she got home from the party (she was too young to drive), or any other common sense, practical details.

The accusation seems like a fabrication from out of nowhere. Really fishy. The talking heads in the DC echo chamber all say Ford sounded credible. I’d say she sounded ridiculously and embarrassingly incredible.

Trump is to be congratulated for drawing these facts to the public’s attention. Up until this point, Christine Ford has been treated with kid gloves, simply because she’s a woman making an accusation against the most despised of all humans: a white male.

Alleging a crime against a public figure is a tailor-made opportunity for anybody and everybody to have their 15 minutes of fame. It might be a complete and total lie—as may be Kavanaugh’s denials. But if charges are made in the right political atmosphere—like now—it’s a ticket to fame.

Christine Ford is no doubt going to get a million-dollar book contract, lots of fat speaking gigs, and God knows what else. It’s going to work out very well for her from a financial point of view. The other accusers will pick up whatever notoriety their PR reps can cadge.

What they should all get, however, is a lawsuit for damages. It’s an outrage that someone can make allegations—with basically no proof whatsoever—ruin a man’s life, and profit hugely from it, with no consequences.

Another thing that amazes me is that there’s been basically no investigation into Ford’s life, habits, associations, character, or views. It seems pretty clear that Kavanaugh was a party animal. But what about Ford? She apparently has strident left-wing views and has worn a pussy hat. My guess is that we’re not talking about Mother Teresa here. But the chances are close to zero of anything negative coming out in the anti-Trump media.

This is all a degrading and irrelevant sideshow for everyone involved. A political witch hunt. Why is nobody talking about Kavanaugh’s actual legal views? The entire charade is a sign of the complete corruption of the American political and judicial systems.

Frankly, I don’t much care whether or not Kavanaugh is guilty of these or other indiscretions when he was a teenager. There are undoubtedly hundreds of potential candidates for the Supreme Court who would be as good or better than him. He’s fungible. He’s just another guy wearing a black robe.

Justin: And what don’t you like about Kavanaugh as a Supreme Court nominee?

Doug: Kavanaugh seems to be a decent enough guy. But remember, he’s spent his whole life within the Washington Beltway. He’s no libertarian. To the contrary.

When he was working for the Baby Bush, he was a huge supporter of the criminally intrusive PATRIOT Act. In addition to the fact it’s one of the most anti-freedom laws ever passed, it’s clearly and completely unconstitutional. Forget about him being a “Constitutionalist.”

Nobody heard a word of protest from him about Guantanamo, or the torture that occurred during the Bush tenure. No comments on Americans being designated “enemy combatants,” and sent off to be tortured in places like Syria. All of that is immoral, as well as unconstitutional.

He had no problem with the railroading of Edward Snowden, or the government spying on American citizens. Unconstitutional and immoral again.

In brief, this guy is not a friend of freedom. Nor does he actually follow the Constitution from that point of view. He’s just another DC pol. He’s a minion of the government.

Look, apart from Kavanaugh’s questionable legal and philosophical principles, the U.S. Constitution itself has already been interpreted out of existence. The only parts of it that are really observed are procedural things like how many senators or congressmen come from a given state, or that the vice president breaks a tie in the senate. Only trivia like that is observed in the Constitution anymore.

Forget about these procedural things. The Constitution is supposed to protect the individual from the State. In that regard, the whole thing has been interpreted out of existence.

Apart from that, if you believe in legal precedents, which they like to say Kavanaugh does, then you have upheld all the ridiculous and highly political rulings the Supreme Court has made over the last 200 years. The Supremes aren’t preternaturally wise. They never have been. They’re just political appointees.

What’s more important is the nature of the Supreme Court itself. As is true of everybody in politics, these people aren’t the best and the brightest. They’re just nine political appointees chosen for whatever reason—often venal and political reasons—by the president.

There’s a much better way to dispense justice.

Justin: And that would be what? To privatize the justice system?

Doug: Yes. In our conversation last week, I said that the court system is one of the only three legitimate functions of the government. The other two are a domestic police and a military.

However, those three things are so important to the running of a civil society that, even though they’re the only legitimate functions of the government, they should all be privatized too.

Justin: How would a privatized court system work?

Doug: Decisions would be made by independent, commercial arbitration agencies, run for profit. They would compete based on the speed, fairness, low cost, and intelligence of their decisions in adjudicating things.

In such a system, both the accused and accuser would abide by the decision of a mutually agreed upon arbiter. The market is a much better judge of honesty and competence than a bunch of politicians in the Senate.

Justin: So, you don’t think people should be focusing so much on Kavanaugh’s past? And I don’t mean the sexual assault allegations. I’m referring more to whether he was a big drinker in high school and college.

Should these things be considered when evaluating whether a 53-year-old man is fit to do a certain job?

Doug: Well, I’m not a Christian. But Jesus wisely said, “He that is without sin among you, let him cast the first stone.”

Does Kavanaugh’s teenage drinking make a difference? Well, everybody’s done things that they wished they hadn’t, or even things they’re ashamed of.

This world isn’t full of saints. I don’t think it really makes much difference unless somebody is universally acclaimed to be a criminal personality, or has been judged a serious criminal in a court of law. Kids have bad judgment sometimes. But they can reform.

This is why the arbitration idea is important. You can choose what aspects in a person are important or not important. You don’t have to be stuck with whoever the court assigns you. Many judges are dishonest, lazy, unintelligent, or just incompetent.

Justin: What about the mainstream media’s role in this sideshow? It certainly feels like a lot’s been blown out of proportion. What do you think?

Doug: There’s no question about that.

Whether you’re a college student, or someone listening to a TV show, you tend to believe what you hear. You believe what somebody in a position of authority tells you.

In general, the media has a strong “liberal” bias. They usually have a collectivist, statist, neo-Marxist viewpoint. That’s who these people are. They’re products of the corrupt American university system where all the professors have the same views. That’s the general philosophical tenor of the media today. They have basically anti-libertarian views.

I believe very little that I read or see in the media.

Justin: Yeah. You need to take everything the mainstream media reports with a grain of salt or tune it out completely.

Doug: Mark Twain was absolutely right when he said, “If you don’t read the newspaper, you’re uninformed. If you read the newspaper, you’re misinformed.”

None of today’s reporters do actual field research and report things firsthand. They basically repeat what other people have said. Or they repeat what the FBI, which at this point has turned into America’s national police force, announces. The FBI is becoming kinder, gentler version of the KGB.

Justin: In past conversations, you’ve told me that you watch the news for entertainment. So where do you get your information? How do you stay informed?

Doug: It’s extremely hard because we all live in our own little bubbles today. Most everything we get is second and even third hand. It’s extremely hard to make accurate judgments on what’s actually happening in the world. The “news” is selectively reported, and almost always with a spin.

Justin: The quality of journalism is clearly in a state of steady decline.

Sadly, the average person hasn’t noticed or doesn’t seem to care. Misinformation and bad ideas have infected society. They’ve become part of the collective consciousness.

Doug: There’s no question about that. People should be asking themselves why it seems like 100% of the Democrats are against putting Kavanaugh in the Supreme Court, and why close to 100% of the Republicans want him in there. It’s not a question of right or wrong. It’s not justice or injustice. It’s a question of which party gets to rule and enforce its opinions on the rest of society.

I listen to talking heads discuss this on various TV shows. It seems like justice and common sense have nothing to do with any of this. Nobody is trying to parse out what may or may not be the facts. Everybody is just looking at their talking points.

From that point of view, what’s going to happen to the U.S.? The country is very philosophically polarized at this point. In addition to the fact that identity politics—which is to say race hatred, sex hatred, and class hatred—come way before anything else today. It seems we’re on the ragged edge of a civil war. The prognosis is not good for the U.S.

In any event, I hope Kavanaugh isn’t confirmed. A much better man can be found—for reasons that have nothing to do with Ford and his other accusers.

Justin: Thanks, Doug.

Doug: No problem.