And Now There (Really) Are Two… or Three

Guest Post by Karl Denninger

Haley is out and IMHO good riddance.  She was wildly more-dangerous than Victoria Nuland, who is also leaving and there is plenty of speculation as to cause — but it may simply be “she’s old enough to call it quits.”  What’s not speculation is that pretty-much the entire Ukraine policy since 2014 has been hers, including our sponsorship of Maidan.  The destruction there in both material and people is hideous and as with Madame Albright’s myopic view of international relations born of her roots Nuland’s position appears to me to be equally-driven by personal animus.  In my view both should have been jettisoned as soon as that became apparent, but then again I’m never been an employee of the State Department and its various elements and interdependencies.

That Haley had no path to the nomination was known a couple of months ago, but eventually no matter how stubborn you are in the face of facts the money runs out because modern politics requires a lot of it, and the people spending it see it as a prop bet with a potential return.  When the odds get long enough they stop paying and you stop running, like it or not.

This of course means that with Biden being the incumbent and political party doctrine being that sitting Presidents with another term available may not be challenged in the primary it is now a two person race.  Well, sort of.  There are rumors flying around that Kennedy is flirting with attempting to get the Libertarian nomination, and the Libertarian party has ballot access for the Presidential ticket in all 50 states.  Despite his policies being pretty much anything but Libertarian the party, of which I have decent internal knowledge of as I was elected to the EC in Florida, is very likely to embrace this move since it will both bring in money and, assuming he gets any material number of votes, and he will, further-cement their ballot position.

Politics makes for strange compromises sometimes and whether you like it or not that’s never going to change.  While I wildly disagree with many of Kennedy’s views I might actually vote for him rather than write in Beelzebub or Cthulhu this November, should he run on the Libertarian ticket.  I certainly can’t support Biden nor can I support Trump as on the critical issues facing this nation, all related to the rule of law, neither has delivered anything than a Bronx Cheer, albeit aimed in different directions and to the benefit of, in some cases, different people.

I will remind everyone that 8 USC §1324 has been around since long before either Trump or Biden was President and that the Executive, of which the President is the head, has the Department of Justice, AG and FBI under same.  Further, every federal officeholder takes an oath to uphold the Constitution and laws of the United States, including the ones they personally disagree with.  There’s a process to change the law if you don’t like it and that process goes through Congress.  Said law, were it to be enforced, would absolutely would stop all of the illegal immigration games instantly and permanently as it lays out criminal felony penalties, including prison time of 5, 10, 20 and potentially life prison terms, for those who harbor or assist such immigration including those who employ said persons.

Since both of the current “mainstream” candidates claim the situation is a critical problem (and I agree with this) but at the same time claim they don’t have the legal tools to deal with it and that is absolutely a lie I will not vote for either of them.

The same applies when it comes to monopolist practices riven through our economy, most-critically in health care as that has the largest impact on the Federal and State budgets.  Again, 15 USC Ch. 1 §1-3 makes clear that such conduct, even the mere attempt if it fails, is a criminal felony carrying prison penalties for each person who is engaged in same.  That law has been challenged twice to the US Supreme Court in the late 1970s and early 80s (Royal Drug and Maricopa County) and found Constitutional both times.  Nonetheless neither major political party has lifted a finger to bring a single criminal charge under that law — not in health care or in any of the other merger and consolidation activities in any industry.

Now will Kennedy vow to bring said charges?  That would be a reason to vote for him.  Of course he might be lying, but then again he might not.  I already know the other two have lied and nothing they can say now will cause me to believe them thus “might” beats “won’t.”

There are many who think our markets and economy will chug along through 2024 and that “its just fine.”  I argue the data says otherwise; consumer credit has gone vertical, for example, and lates are rising quickly, including in car loans which are more-likely to get paid than a mortgage because without a car you’re not going to work and then everything goes down the toilet for you in your personal financial situation.  Thus if you have to screw someone as you simply don’t have the money to pay the last person you usually screw is the car finance company.

I’m not dancing in the streets, incidentally, that Trump is the presumptive nominee.  The Supreme Court’s 9-0 decision on Colorado the other day probably won’t stop some from trying to interfere in the election, but the Court made quite clear that the decision as to who is President lies with the people as the States and other apparatus, other than through Congress, simply do not have jurisdiction to force a decision other than by individual votes at the ballot box.

The dynamic here is likely similar to that of Perot’s candidacy.  Whether Perot would have been better for the nation I do not know, but that he recognized the problems on an economic and budgetary basis in various areas, focused at the time on trade, was both clear and correct in his analysis and, as time has proved, on a forward projection of the outcome.  We would have been wise to put him in place on that basis as President but we didn’t, and thus here we are.

I am not bullish on American society and the economy given these facts in the intermediate term.  Four years from now, no matter if we put a Democrat or Republican in office, I expect we’ll be wishing we didn’t given who those two parties have posted up.

But what I wish doesn’t change how the ballots have been cast, and when you get down to it all government exists with the consent of the governed.  I’ve seen no indication that the people of America have declared to any material degree that such consent has been withdrawn, say much less it being actively sabotaged.

So be it; I am one voice and one vote, and have no more right to overrule the decision of the many than you do.

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